Emerging Issues in Prison Health

Bernice S. Elger
Catherine Ritter is trained as a medical doctor. She currently works as an independent expert in prison health. Her areas of interest are addiction, transmittable diseases and health promotion among prisoners and migrants.
Heino Stöver is Director of the Institute of Addiction Research, Frankfurt am main, Germa-ny. He is President of the German Harm Reduction Umbrella Network (akzept.org). He graduated in social sciences and his current research inter-ests are health promotion among vulnerable groups, drug services, and health is-sues in closed settings (HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C and drug dependence, health of prison staff).

This volume recognizes and addresses the health care issues of prisoners, to establish best practices and to learn about approaches to these challenges from around the world. It presents new evidence on several emerging and classical prison health issues. The first goal of this volume is to address emerging issues related to health in prison. Second, it presents the most recent research-based evidence and translates it to the practice. The third goal, is that it allows for sufficient diversity while also incorporating updates of some important already recognized prison health. 
 The volume discusses prisons and the life and well-being of prisoners and staff, after growing problems as drug misuse (incl. tobacco smoking), infectious diseases (HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, STIs and TB), psychiatric problems, inadequate and unhealthy living conditions (incl. nutrition), overcrowding of prisons. These are addressed adequately in order to meet the international requirements of equivalence of health care.
The scope of this volume is at the same type specific and diverse enough to cover the interests of a large audience that includes many types of practitioners involved in health-related issues in the field of prison health care, such as psychologists, nurses and prison administration officers responsible for health care, legal professionals and social workers. 

Investigates the impact of prison and prisoner culture on well-being of prisoners (e.g. forced sex and hierarchy), women's, migrant and ethnic minorities' health

Introduction; Michael Levy.- Aging Inside: Older Adults in Prison; Adrian J. Hayes.- Supporting Families and Children Living in the Shadow of PrisonersViviane Scheckter.- Death in Custody: Towards an International Framework for Investigation and Prevention; Gloria Gaggioli and Bernice S. Elger.- Sudden Deaths in Police Custody: Analysis of Causes and the Need for Prevention; Christoph G. Birngruber, Reinhard B. Dettmeyer, Sönke Janzen and Bernice S. Elger.- The Continuing Emergence of Art Therapy in Prisons; David E. Gussak.- Spiritual Help During Detention: Specific Responses to Different Stages and Types of Imprisonment; Frank Stüfen.- A Balanced Diet: From Facts to Solutions; Bernice S. Elger.- Doing Gender in Prisons: Sport as a Way of Creating Masculinity; Heino Stöver.- Psychiatric Problems in Prisoners: Screening, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention; Annette Opitz-Welke.- Drug Services and Harm Reduction Practice in Prisons; Heino Stöver.- Hepatitis C Viral Infection in Prisons; Geert Robaeys, Amber Arain and Heino Stöver.- Confidentiality in Prison Health Care: A Practical Guide; Bernice S. Elger.- Preventing Human Rights Violations in Prison: The Role of Guidelines; Bernice S. Elger and David M. Shaw.- Immigration Detention and Health in Europe; Barbara Rijk, Caroline Schultz, Roumyana Petrova-Benedict and Mariya Samuilova.- Protection of People in Custody under the International Human Rights Sys-tem: The Case of Interim Measures in the European System; Clara Burbano Herrera.- Prison Staff under Stress: Causes, Consequences and Health Promotion Strategies; Heino Stöver.