In this video-interview, Dr. Carina Ferreira-Borges, Head of WHO European Office for Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases and Dr. Filipa Alves da Costa expert in the WHO Alcohol, Illicit Drugs & Prison Health Programme come back for us on the duty of states to ensure equivalence of care for people in detention.
The WHO argues that “the principle of equivalence cannot be achieved if isolated or if the prison health systems are fragmented within the wider National Health systems and they are not adequately connected or coordinated”. They therefore advocate that Ministries of Health take over the governance of prison healthcare but also for a whole of government approach. “It requires efforts from more than one minister, more than one entity, so that we can address health in prisons. (…) We have seen the importance of going across the different sectors, for example, during the COVID-19 crisis, (to provide) the adequate support to prison outbreaks.”
Interviews filmed in June 2021