ABSTRACT
IN the medical department of the prison the principle of ‘inclusion in the community’ has been carried as far as in any other. Although prison Medical Officers are not themselves officers of the National Health Service, every facility offered by that service is available to every prisoner. Dentists and opticians regularly visit the prisons, which are equipped with dental surgeries, and all necessary dental treatment (including dentures) and spectacles are supplied. Venereal disease is treated by venereologists from the local clinics, whether at the prisons or at the public clinics: everything is done to secure so far as possible continuity of treatment on discharge, and at Holloway, where the problem bulks largest, the London County Council have attached a venereal disease social worker to the prison clinic to this particular end. Full use is also made of N.H.S. consultant and hospital services, and for all these purposes numbers of prisoners are taken every day to the public hospitals and clinics—a considerable additional drain on the time of the staff for escort duties.
