NCJ Number
101072
Date Published
1985
Length
15 pages
Annotation
The prison health services of England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the United States, and the Netherlands differ in many ways in structure, style and reputation.
Abstract
In England and Wales as well as in the United States, the doctor running the prison medical service is closely involved in the management of the whole prison system. In the other countries, another agency employs the head of the prison medical service. The Dutch and Scottish systems rely on part-time doctors, while the others use mainly full-time doctors. None of the systems allows prisoners to choose their own doctors. Letting prisoners in city prisons choose their doctors, using more part-time doctors, and having the health authorities run the prison medical service would all be improvements in England and Wales. Additional problems in British prison systems are the nursing service and provision of adequate care for mentally abnormal inmates who do not require placement in hospitals. 13 references.