Prison healthcare: overcrowding, understaffing, a drug epidemic, and an ageing population in an unfit Victorian estate

An 85 year old man arrives late at night at the reception area of a category B prison (box 1) in southern England. Frail, confused, and wheelchair bound, the new prisoner has multiple comorbidities including obstructive lung disease, Parkinson’s disease, and heart disease. That he has arrived here is down to novel forms of forensic DNA analysis, the use of which has seen increases in the prosecution and incarceration of the perpetrators of historical sex offences—successes in the view of the justice system, but problematic for an ill equipped and overcrowded prison estate. The jail, built in the 1860s, has no lifts. It has narrow doorways that cannot accommodate wheelchairs. After the 6 pm nightly lockdown there is no access for care workers from the community.“I do receptions [when prisoners are medically assessed at arrival] twice a week and I see this sort of situation frequently,” says Jonathan McAllister, of…
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