AIMS To review studies of the prevalence of substance abuse and dependence in prisoners on reception into custody. DESIGN AND METHOD A systematic review of studies measuring the prevalence of drug and alcohol abuse and dependence in male and female prisoners on reception into prison was conducted. Only studies using standardized diagnostic criteria were included. Relevant information, such as...

PURPOSE Social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) is a term used to refer to the state of an individual's overall wellbeing. This review aims to consider the importance of understanding and assessing SEWB in prisoner populations, and identify potentially important differences between groups of prisoners, including those who identify as from minority cultural backgrounds (Aboriginal and Torres Strai...

The prison population is increasing and the health problems of prisoners are considerable. Prison is designed with punishment, correction and rehabilitation to the community in mind and these goals may conflict with the aims of health care. A literature review showed that the main issues in prison health care are mental health, substance abuse and communicable diseases. Women prisoners and olde...

OBJECTIVE To increase understanding of how the prison environment influences the mental health of prisoners and prison staff. DESIGN Qualitative study with focus groups. SETTING A local prison in southern England. PARTICIPANTS Prisoners and prison staff. RESULTS Prisoners reported that long periods of isolation with little mental stimulus contributed to poor mental health and led to int...

Criminal activity often involves considerable risks. It is therefore not surprising that criminals have been speculated to differ from noncriminals in risk attitude. Yet, few data exist to support this assumption. Moreover, the psychological underpinnings of differences in risk attitude are currently little understood. We presented prisoners and controls with sets of risky decision tasks and mo...

This study examines the social networks of prisoners in the period from before to after their incarceration. We use unique panel data on 702 prisoners and their core discussion networks. Our results show that while the size of prisoners’ core discussion network is stable, prisoners have replaced 60% of their core discussion network members after incarceration. Moreover, multinomial multilevel m...

Background: Iraqi political prisoners were subjected to regular physical and psychological torture. Both physical and psychological torture methods were associated with increased PTSD symptoms, especially when combined. In Iraq, several articles were published on PTSD, but no study was focused on former political prisoners or torture victims. Therefore, this study was carried out to estimate ra...

BACKGROUND Self-harm and suicide are common in prisoners, yet robust information on the full extent and characteristics of people at risk of self-harm is scant. Furthermore, understanding how frequently self-harm is followed by suicide, and in which prisoners this progression is most likely to happen, is important. We did a case-control study of all prisoners in England and Wales to ascertain t...