THE RIGHT TO HEALTH IN PRISON:
RESULTS OF A NATIONWIDE SURVEY AND REPORT
United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of prisoners
Adopted by the First United Nations Congress on the Prevention of
Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, held at Geneva in 1955, and
approved by the Economic and Social Council by its resolutions 663 C
(XXIV) of 31 July 1957 and 2076 (LXII) of 13 May 1977
Medical services
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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