Nursing in prisons. Health and young offenders

This article focuses on a recently opened unit, Lancaster Farms, which houses over 300 young inmates, a proportion of whom cannot read and write. Nursing staff at the unit have cooperated with colleagues in other settings to produce an innovative programme designed to promote healthy lifestyles. Courses are available in areas ranging from parenting skills to sexual health. More importantly, perhaps, the unit is fostering an ethos that discourages bullying--arguably an experience which makes victims' lives so miserable that they would be unreceptive to health promotion initiatives.