The health of women and girls released from prison - findings from Australia and internationally

Abstract

Abstract Women and girls involved in the criminal justice system experience a higher burden of morbidity than their justice-involved male counterparts and women in the general population. In addition, women with a history of incarceration are more likely than men with a history of incarceration to be exposed to poor social and health circumstances. While both justice-involved men and women have an increased risk of death compared to their counterparts in the general population, justice-involved women experience a greater elevation in risk. Understanding and addressing the health and social needs of women leaving prison is critically important to address high rates of preventable mortality, and to design appropriate gender-sensitive transitional support. This presentation will first briefly summarise the findings of a scoping review which reported on the health status of girls and young women in detention, published in the Lancet Public Health earlier this year. It will then summarise findings from a global systematic review and meta-analysis on the health of women involved in the criminal justice system, describing what is known about their physical health, mental health and health service use. Finally, this presentation will describe results from a novel prospective cohort study from Australia on differences between women and men in patterns, characteristics and predictors of ambulance and emergency department presentations, describing the implications of these findings in the context of a growing need for evidence-based and gender-sensitive transitional support planning.