History of the prison medical services

Abstract

Prison doctors labour behind high walls and are usually neither seen nor heard. Most come out occasionally to appear in court; some teach medical students; most have contact with specialists and general practioners; some write articles for their hard to find (if not actually secret) Prison Medical Journal; and some speak at conferences. But most of Britain's doctors rarely meet one of the 87 full time doctors, or even one of the 100 part time doctors, who work for the prison medical service, and nor do they have much chance to read the prison doctors' writings Britain's doctors do, however, have abundant opportunities to read articles, and watch television programmes - most of them polemical - written by outsiders about the prison medical service.