Moving prison health promotion along: towards an integrative framework for action to develop health promotion and tackle the social determinants of health: James Woodall, Nick de Viggiani, Rachael Dixey and Jane South

There is now a wealth of evidence that demonstrates that people in prison face a disproportionate burden of health and social inequality. Many diseases, illnesses and long-term conditions are over-represented in prison populations and disadvantaged social circumstances are commonplace for most of those imprisoned. For these reasons, some have argued that public health and health promotion in the prison population is as much, if not more, significant than efforts in the ‘free’ community (Ross, 2013); yet, the concept and practice of public health and health promotion in prison is both contested and underdeveloped with significant variation in its application in prison systems globally. This paper outlines what the authors regard as ‘prison health’ and what the determinants of prison health are. Our

argument is that a social model of health in prison has not been taken far enough, and that and an appreciation of the wider social determinants of health has not been fully addressed in terms of policy responses.