Health Condition and Prisoners: A Review of Research and Emerging Areas of Inquiry

Abstract

Prison organizations are not isolated institutions, thus social and economic change in the wider society affects their internal dynamics. We explore how health conditions within lower socioeconomic segments of the population influence the health characteristics of prisoner admissions, and we demonstrate how health conditions within the wider society have major implications for prisoner health care systems. A conceptual model is presented that organizes previous research into several areas in conjunction with a research agenda on prisoner health care issues. The article also explores the effects of recent conservative crime control ideologies on institutional health care programs.