(About 60 anti-war protesters demonstrated outside Mr Howard's Hobart
hotel this morning. breaking news...)
Doctors say the problems facing health professionals in Australia's
prison systems are impacting on the wider community.
A two-day public health association conference begins in Brisbane today
in Queensland to review mental and physical health in prisons and youth
and immigration detention centres.
The second Public Health Association Conference will also look at the
effects of incarceration on the wider community.
One of the organisers, Dr Mitchell Smith, says short sentences and the
high turnover of prisoners means many will return to the community with
their health problems.
"The fact they require health care is in a way separate entirely to
the fact that they're there for punishment," Dr Smith said.
"They have rights to health care as do any other citizens and so one
of the things that the conference is looking at is indeed those rights,
and also the difficulties faced by health staff working within the
prisons."
Conference organisers say while some health issues in prisons have
improved in recent years there are still significant problems.
These include the special needs of prisoners who are female, Indigenous,
or have mental and physical disabilities.
Also of concern is the high prevalence of infections such as Hepatitis C,
which remain unacceptably high in prisons, and impact on the wider
community.
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