ABSTRACT
This chapter examines accreditation, standards, monitoring, professionalization, and community-based care provision as means of improving prison health care. It compares US and Britain to highlight the different approaches of the two countries. The chapter considers only the position of England. England has one prison system and one National Health Service (NHS) that provides health care to all residents, whether they are outside or inside a prison. The chapter explains that considerable involvement by the state in the provision of prison health services as with other public services in England has implications for the setting of standards and monitoring of the major government departments. The differences between the US and England demonstrate the significance of having one national correctional system instead of a fragmented collection of services. Prison is a source of ill health and a locus of inevitable barriers and delays to health care access.
