BACKGROUND Cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) were collected as part of a randomised controlled trial of a multi-component intervention to reduce smoking among male prisoners. Cross-sectional baseline data on CVRF were compared among smoking male prisoners and males of similar age in the general population. METHODS 425 smoking prisoners were recruited (n = 407 in New South Wales; 18 in Queens...

  Purpose: To compare early maladaptive schemas and coping styles in drug dependent and non-dependent prisoners of Zahedan city.   Materials and Methods: This was an ex post facto study. The population of the study consisted of all men prisoners of Zahedan prison in 2013. The participants were 240 prisoners among which 120 prisoners were selected by convenience sampling method and the rest by s...

OBJECTIVE To compare two levels of stress (solitary confinement (SC) and non-SC) among remand prisoners as to incidence of psychiatric disorders in relation to prevalent disorders. METHOD Longitudinal repeated assessments were carried out from the start and during the remand phase of imprisonment. Both interview-based and self-reported measures were applied to 133 remand prisoners in SC and 9...

Prisoners have higher rates of chronic diseases such as substance dependence, mental health conditions and infectious disease, as compared to the general population. We projected the number of male state prisoners with a chronic health condition who at release would be eligible or ineligible for healthcare coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). We used ACA income guidelines in conjunctio...

Organ procurement from executed prisoners in China is internationally condemned, yet this practice continues unabated in 2014. This is despite repeated announcements from Chinese authorities that constructive measures have been undertaken to conform to accepted ethical standards. While there is unanimous agreement on the unethical nature of using organs from executed prisoners, due to its limit...

Ex-prisoners' recidivism risks are high. Several theories state that employment can reduce these risks but emphasize that the protective role of employment is conditional on job qualities (work intensity, job duration, etc.). Longitudinal research on the role of employment in ex-prisoners' recidivism patterns is scarce, and most existing work used a simplistic employment measure (i.e., employed...

In the United Kingdom (UK), government policy urges involvement of patients in their care and in health-related research. Women prisoners have considerable health needs and constitute an important "patient" group. This study explores women prisoners' perceptions of health and illness to consider the extent to which they differed from those of lay people. Thirty-seven women participated in six f...

In recent years, prison officials have increasingly turned to solitary confinement as a way to manage difficult or dangerous prisoners. Many of the prisoners subjected to isolation, which can extend for years, have serious mental illness, and the conditions of solitary confinement can exacerbate their symptoms or provoke recurrence. Prison rules for isolated prisoners, however, greatly restrict...

In previous articles I have set out the challenges of providing healthcare in prisons and have examined the problems in British prisons of elderly prisoners, women prisoners, and prisoners with mental disorders. In this final article of the series I highlight how prison contributes to the treatment of people who are “hard to reach.” Many British prisoners come from the most economically deprive...

We examined, first, differences in dispositional and situational coping, and psychological distress between political ex-prisoners and their matched controls, and second, coping effectiveness in protecting mental health from impacts of imprisonment and military trauma. Thirdly, we tested the hypothesis that compatibility ("goodness of fit") between dispositional and situational coping would pre...