The concentration of incarcerated individuals with mental health and physical problems in the United States has led to the labeling of jails and prisons as the “hospitals of last resort” for those unable to access healthcare services in the community. As funding for community behavioral health services has dwindled, the number of people with serious psychiatric conditions in the nation’s correc...

Prisons are invariably unisex institutions where, besides many deprivations, heterosexual expression in its normal sense is absent. It is this characteristic that make prisons settings potentially fertile grounds for sexual aberrations. Since definite and accurate data concerning sexual activities among prison inmates are difficult to obtain, the phenomenon of sexual practices in prisons has tr...

I nfectious diseases can be transmitted readily within prisons due to close contact between prisoners. Tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/AIDS are two important causes of morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases worldwide [1, 2]; prisons have become reservoirs for these diseases in many settings. TB prevalence among prisoners worldwide can be up to 50 times higher than national averages [3, 4]. ...

Prisoners throughout the world are at a greater risk of infectious diseases compared to communities outside. Hepatitis C (HCV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and tuberculosis (TB) have attracted great attention because of their potential to cause great morbidity and mortality in prison populations. However, prisons are not closed worlds. Many people enter and leave prisons every day and ma...

Introduction: Prison, as the most important place for the transmission of infectious diseases, has particular importance, and prison populations are at high risk for infectious diseases like Hepatitis B & C. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of Hepatitis B & C among male inmates in six prisons of different provinces in Iran in 2012. Methods: In...

Tuberculosis is thought to be the single biggest cause of death among the world's prisoners, but a human rights approach to tuberculosis control has not yet been applied. We propose that existing guidelines for the control of HIV be adapted and applied to tuberculosis. Tuberculosis control in prisons provides a platform to develop these concepts.