The second RCGP Health and Justice conference was held at Rampton this September. The consensus position of the conference agreed that more can be done to help prisoners who reach the end of their lives while imprisoned. Both Rampton Hospital and Whatton Prison demonstrated the excellent end-of-life care facilities which they have developed to treat prisoners who choose to or are required to die in a secure setting. The Prison Reform Trust revealed remarkable statistics that only approximately 10 prisoners per year are released from prison to die in the community either in their homes or in a hospice.
The RCGP Secure Environments Group and clinicians who work in secure settings from across the UK call on the Ministry of Justice to review the strict criteria which mean that only a tiny number of prisoners who are at the very end stage of their lives are allowed early compassionate release or release on temporary licence to die in the community. There are many cases where prisoners are clearly only days or weeks away from an expected death yet they are forced to die in prisons.
- © British Journal of General Practice 2014