PRISONERS IN SCOTLAND

Adult male prisoners in Scotland

Adult male prisoners in Scotland

Introduction

The health of the prisoner is an issue and the role of the nurses is appreciated in promoting the health and well being of the prisoners. According to the Scottish prison service's publication the total adult sentenced prisoners are five thousand five hundred and eleven (5511) as of February 1st 2013 (Department of Health et al pp. 23-17). The social exclusion in the society can impact the basic right of the people like health. The prisoners are socially excluded people, so the health facilities of the prisoners are not provided equally as it is provided to the other citizens. The people who are suspected to commit or committed a criminal offense are called offenders but most of the times the offenders are not sentenced to custody (Norman & Parrish, pp. 104-109).

Discussion

In the last ten years there has been a vital change in delivering the health care facilities to the prisoners. The major development occurred in 2006 when the responsibility of providing the health care facility was transferred to NHS. The core objective of this transfer is to provide the equal facility of health to the people whether they are in the custody of the prison or a free citizen. Being in a prison is itself a threat to the health of a person the reason may be the environment of the prison (Barry & Farmer, pp.45-54). Sometimes the prisoner has the medical issues before getting into the prison. Some medical issues which are common in the prisoners are; mental sickness, communicable virus diseases and misuse of the drugs. In these diseases mental health problem is the most common disease that is why it is important to provide counseling to the offenders so that they do not repeat that crime again.

The social life of the offender suffers after being in the prison (Follin & Springhouse, pp.47 45). People in the society do not accept them. The challenge for the nurses is that they are some requirement for the prisoners to participate in the decision making about their own care. To improve the health facilities in the prisons some initiatives has been taken. The Scotland prison service launched a program in May 2010 (Royal College of Nursing, n.d). The main objective of the program is to enhance the health facility in the prison and help the prisoners to start a good ...