title: The health needs of young people in prison.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There has been an unprecedented reduction in the number of young people in prison; however, questions remain about the appropriateness and effectiveness of custody, given the high prevalence of health needs, self-inflected deaths while in custody and high reoffending rates.
  
  
  METHODS
  Articles relating to the health needs of young people, aged 10-17 years in prison in England and Wales were sourced through PubMed and ISI Web of Knowledge, plus additional key reports were included if deemed relevant.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Young people in prison have much higher rates of multiple and complex health problems compared with young people in the general population. However, many of their health-care needs are unrecognized and unmet.
  There is an urgent need for up-to-date and robust prevalence data of all health needs across the age ranges in England and Wales. Research has neglected physical health and neurodevelopmental disorders and the quality of research for females and Black and Minority Ethnic group's requires improvement. There is a dearth of high-quality evaluations of health interventions with robust and sensitive short- and long-term outcome measures.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Brain, Behaviour and Mental Health, Centre for Mental Health and Risk, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK charlotte.lennox@manchester.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lennox
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D016497:Adolescent Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D002648:Child; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000453:epidemiology; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D011329:Prisoners / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011330:Prisons / Q000458:organization & administration*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D014852:Wales / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: mental health; neurodevelopmental disorders; physical health; prison; substance misuse; young people