A proper medical examination shall be offered to a detained or imprisoned person as promptly as
possible after his admission to the place of detention or imprisonment, and thereafter medical care and
treatment shall be provided whenever necessary. This care and treatment shall be provided free of
charge.
The Standard Minimum Rules contain the following provisions relating to the provision of
medical services at penal institutions:
22. (1) At every institution there shall be available the services of at least one qualified medical officer
who should have some knowledge of psychiatry. The medical services should be organized in close
relationship to the general health administration of the community or nation. They shall include a
psychiatric service for the diagnosis and, in proper cases, the treatment of states of mental abnormality.
(2) Sick prisoners who require specialist treatment shall be transferred to specialized institutions or to
civil hospitals. Where hospital facilities are provided in an institution, their equipment, furnishings and
pharmaceutical supplies shall be proper for the medical care and treatment of sick prisoners, and there
shall be a staff of suitable trained officers.
(3) The services of a qualified dental officer shall be available to every prisoner.
23. (1) In women’s institutions there shall be special accommodation for all necessary pre-natal and
post-natal care and treatment. Arrangements shall be made wherever practicable for children to be born
in a hospital outside the institution. If a child is born in prison, this fact shall not be mentioned in the
birth certificate.
(2) Where nursing infants are allowed to remain in the institution with their mothers, provision shall be
made for a nursery staffed by qualified persons, where the infants shall be placed when they are not in
the care of their mothers.
24. The medical officer shall see and examine every prisoner as soon as possible after his admission and
thereafter as necessary, with a view particularly to the discovery of physical or mental illness and the
taking of all necessary measures; the segregation of prisoners suspected of infectious or contagious
conditions; the noting of physical or mental defects which might hamper rehabilitation, and the
determination of the physical capacity of every prisoner for work.
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