Health
Health
Mental health
Violence
United States
Secrecy, mistrust and the shadow of interrogation at the American
prison limited doctors’ ability to treat mental illness among detainees.
Dr. Rosecrans, now retired from the Navy, led one of the mental health teams assigned to care for detainees at the island prison over the past 15 years. Some prisoners…
Source — New York Times
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Middle East
Health
Israel
Four Palestinian prisoners continue on hunger strike to demand their freedom from administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial, with two strikers reaching the 30-day mark without food and facing serious deterioration to their health.
Source — Samidoun
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Women
Health
Mental health
United Kingdom
From self-harming in groups to starvation and self-immolation, women are overwhelmingly more likely than men to hurt themselves while incarcerated. So why isn’t the prison system responding?
Maria, 29, is a disability rights activist who uses a wheelchair. She also has borderline personality disorder…
Source — Broadly
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Prisons
Portfolio
Health
Violence
United Kingdom
A prison inmate who suffered from severe asthma died due to “serious failings” in the way jail staff managed his medical condition, a coroner has ruled.
Senior Coroner Andre Rebello has warned that unless lessons are learned from the death of Ashley Gil, the prison service may experience future fatalities.
Source — The Independent
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Health
Mental health
United Kingdom
More prisoners are being diagnosed with mental health problems requiring hospital treatment, official figures obtained by the Guardian show.
The number of male prisoners being transferred to hospital under the 1983 Mental Health Act grew by more than 20% between 2011 and 2014 in England and Wales, said…
Source — The Guardian
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Africa
Health
Madagascar
Almost one in every two prisoners in Madagascar suffers from moderate or severe malnutrition. In 2015, more than 9,000 inmates were identified as malnourished and treated as part of an emergency food programme aiming to get this extremely vulnerable population back on their feet and prevent malnutrition-related…
Source — ICRC
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Health
Canada
After seven days in solitary confinement, Brett Crane told prison staff he wanted to transform into a werewolf. As his days in “the pit” marched on, he says he saw demons, heard voices and predicted that an imminent earthquake would wipe out humanity.
Source — The Globe and Mail
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Health
Protest
United Kingdom
An investigation is underway after 65 prisoners signed a petition criticising the medical services at Edinburgh prison.
The inmates have alleged “serious medical neglect” and claim that a prisoner who died recently did not get the help he needed.
Source — Herald Scotland
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Health
Drugs
Violence
United Kingdom
A prisoner who died after apparently overdosing on prescription medicines had allegedly been ringing her cell alarm bell for more than two hours with no response, the Guardian has learned.
Source — The Guardian
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Europe
Health
France
Les données disponibles sur la santé des détenus “sont anormalement anciennes”, regrettent d’emblée les rapporteurs de l’IGAS, après avoir décrit l’état clinique de la population carcérale telle qu’elle était analysée dans des études des années 2001 à 2004.
“Seule l’étude sur le VIH (virus du sida),…
Source — France Info
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Health
United States
Depriving people of condoms and medications puts everyone at risk.
Some countries do make condoms available to prisoners, while others cite security issues, or blanket prohibitions of sex. Only last year, California became the second state to require that condoms be available to all prisoners. Even in…
Source — The Atlantic
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Health
United States
In February, The Nation reported that at least 38 men died in the BOP’s privately run prisons from 1998 to 2014 in the wake of inadequate medical care. An examination of thousands of pages of previously unreleased files revealed that gravely ill prisoners had been left untreated, or relegated to the…
Source — The Nation
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Central America and the Caribbean
Health
Overcrowding
Haiti
This article is not available in English. If you wish, you can consult the French version.
Source — Le Nouvelliste
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Europe
Health
Suicide
France
Suicide rates in French prisons are almost double the European average.
The latest data from the Council of Europe, in a report published in December 2015, shows that the rate in France was 12.4 suicides per 10,000 inmates in 2013. The median rate across the European Union was 5.4 suicides per 10,000…
Source — Euronews
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Health
United States
Human Right Watch (HRW) a reccueilli les témoignages d’anciens détenus précedemment incarcérés dans des prisons de la Louisiane (sud des États-Unis), sur la dangereuse absence de soins en matière de VIH.
HRW a publié à ce sujet un rapport émettant plusieurs recommandations afin de réformer ce système…
Source — News 360
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Europe
Health
Mental health
France
Detention Conditions, Lack of Treatment Increase Suffering —
Thousands of men and women with psychosocial disabilities in French prisons are at risk of suicide or harming themselves because of the neglect of their physical and mental health, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
Source — Human Right Watch
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Africa
Health
Côte d’Ivoire
This article is not available in English. If you wish, you can consult the French version.
Source — Le Monde Diplomatique
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Women
Health
Violence
South Africa
International Women’s Day on March 8 turns the spotlight on the fate of women, in particular their achievements and the slow pace of progress. An often overlooked group are women prisoners.
Source — Mail & Guardian
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Africa
Health
Sierra Leone
Central Freetown’s maximum-security prison was built to house just 324. Today, over 1400 inmates are crammed between its walls.
Source — UNPD
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