A Review of Health and Nutrition in Prisons: A Challenge Between Human Rights Conventions, Nutrition Guidelines and Health Policies

This paper seeks to provide a scoping review of international conventions and policies tackling health and nutrition from a human rights angle as well as studies assessing health security, nutrition status and adequacy of diet in prisons through a selective bibliography from several countries representing different economical statuses, ethnicities, cultures, judiciary structures, and health systems. The review highlights the influence of social factors in prisons with regards to food security, fulfilment of basic nutrition and health rights, weight status in prison, quality of diet, and medical nourishment therapy. The review concludes that women and children in prisons often suffer from inadequate nutrition and health services. In comparison between countries, under-developed countries seem to offer poor health and nutrition services in prisons. Further research should be undertaken, especially in the geographical areas that were not covered in available literature, such as the Middle Eastern and North African regions, to establish whether human rights standards and international policies pertaining to health and nutrition are applied in prisons in these regions. It would also be interesting to develop a complete and reliable verified tool designed to assess individuals in detention while taking into consideration human rights, social, nutrition, and health determinants.