Prisoner's Health report sets stage for Improvement

“The National Health Committee’s report on prisoner health is an important and significant contribution to health policy”, says Kim Workman, Director of Rethinking Crime and Punishment, and a former Deputy Director General of Health (Maori Health).

“It not only describes the current state of health of Prisoners and the inadequacy of the current response, its many recommendation set the framework for a process of staged improvement in prisoner health care. What will be needed is a change in organisational mindset, away from a preoccupation with the behavioural management of risk, to a primary concern with the therapeutic and clinical needs of prisoners, and ultimately their whanau and families. The genesis of poor prisoner health is complex, but it is usually connected to the health of prisoners’ communities of origin. There is an opportunity, with the provision of comprehensive healthcare, to link back into those communities, to deal more effectively with those ‘hard to reach’ whanau and families.”

“Florence Nightingale famously argued that the first principle of the hospital should be to do the sick no harm”, said Mr Workman. “Health professionals understand that – but the Department of Corrections does not have as a central concern, the proactive treatment of prisoner’s health. It’s concern is with managing behavioural risk – the high health needs of prisoners tend are usually addressed reactively.”

“The Committee’s proposal to transfer responsibility for prisoner healthcare to the health sector, needs to be seriously discussed and considered. Certainly, those jurisdictions that have taken this step, have made significant advancement in promoting healthy prisoners, and contributed to their successful reintegration and rehabilitation.”

ENDS

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