BACKGROUND Older prisoners are the fastest growing group of prisoners in most countries. They have high rates of physical and psychiatric co-morbidity, compared to community dwelling older persons and also compared with other prisoner groups. Very high rates of mental illness have been found in remand (pre-trial) prisoners when compared with other prisoner groups; however to date there have bee...

INTRODUCTION Several studies have pointed to high rates of substance use disorders among female prisoners. The present study aimed to assess comorbidities of substance use disorders with other mental disorders in female prisoners at admission to a penal justice system. METHODS A sample of 150 female prisoners, consecutively admitted to the penal justice system of Berlin, Germany, was intervie...

BACKGROUND The over-representation of female prisoners with borderline personality disorder (BPD) is an area of concern for HM Prison Service. Pilot programmes of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) were undertaken for the first time in three British prisons for women diagnosed with BPD. Standard year-long programmes were piloted in two closed training prisons. Three short-format programmes wer...

INTRODUCTION There are more than 10 million prison inmates throughout the world and this number is increasing continuously. Prisoners are a particularly vulnerable minority group that has special healthcare needs and demands on healthcare services and providers. The aim of this study was to give an overview of prisoners' healthcare problems leading to emergency department admission, in order to...