–3–
b.
Equivalence of care
i) general medicine
38.
A prison health care service should be able to provide medical treatment and nursing care, as
well as appropriate diets, physiotherapy, rehabilitation or any other necessary special facility, in
conditions comparable to those enjoyed by patients in the outside community. Provision in terms of
medical, nursing and technical staff, as well as premises, installations and equipment, should be
geared accordingly.
There should be appropriate supervision of the pharmacy and of the distribution of
medicines. Further, the preparation of medicines should always be entrusted to qualified staff
(pharmacist/nurse, etc.).
39.
A medical file should be compiled for each patient, containing diagnostic information as
well as an ongoing record of the patient's evolution and of any special examinations he has
undergone. In the event of a transfer, the file should be forwarded to the doctors in the receiving
establishment.
Further, daily registers should be kept by health care teams, in which particular incidents
relating to the patients should be mentioned. Such registers are useful in that they provide an overall
view of the health care situation in the prison, at the same time as highlighting specific problems
which may arise.
40.
The smooth operation of a health care service presupposes that doctors and nursing staff are
able to meet regularly and to form a working team under the authority of a senior doctor in charge
of the service.
ii) psychiatric care
41.
In comparison with the general population, there is a high incidence of psychiatric
symptoms among prisoners. Consequently, a doctor qualified in psychiatry should be attached to
the health care service of each prison, and some of the nurses employed there should have had
training in this field.
The provision of medical and nursing staff, as well as the layout of prisons, should be such
as to enable regular pharmacological, psychotherapeutic and occupational therapy programmes to
be carried out.
42.
The CPT wishes to stress the role to be played by prison management in the early detection
of prisoners suffering from a psychiatric ailment (eg. depression, reactive state, etc.), with a view to
enabling appropriate adjustments to be made to their environment. This activity can be encouraged
by the provision of appropriate health training for certain members of the custodial staff.
43.
A mentally ill prisoner should be kept and cared for in a hospital facility which is adequately
equipped and possesses appropriately trained staff. That facility could be a civil mental hospital or a
specially equipped psychiatric facility within the prison system.
On the one hand, it is often advanced that, from an ethical standpoint, it is appropriate for
mentally ill prisoners to be hospitalised outside the prison system, in institutions for which the
public health service is responsible. On the other hand, it can be argued that the provision of
psychiatric facilities within the prison system enables care to be administered in optimum
conditions of security, and the activities of medical and social services intensified within that
system.