The health needs of young people in prison

There has been an unprecedented reduction in the number of young people in prison; however, questions remain about the appropriateness and effectiveness of custody, given the high prevalence of health needs, self-inflected deaths while in custody and high reoffending rates.

Articles relating to the health needs of young people, aged 10-17 years in prison in England and Wales were sourced through PubMed and ISI Web of Knowledge, plus additional key reports were included if deemed relevant.

Young people in prison have much higher rates of multiple and complex health problems compared with young people in the general population. However, many of their health-care needs are unrecognized and unmet.

There is an urgent need for up-to-date and robust prevalence data of all health needs across the age ranges in England and Wales. Research has neglected physical health and neurodevelopmental disorders and the quality of research for females and Black and Minority Ethnic group's requires improvement. There is a dearth of high-quality evaluations of health interventions with robust and sensitive short- and long-term outcome measures.