This book constitutes the first publication to utilise a range of social science methodologies to illuminate diverse and new aspects of health research in prison settings. Prison contexts often have profound implications for the health of the people who live and work within them. Despite these settings often housing people from extremely disadvantaged and deprived communities, many with multiple and complex health needs, health research is generally neglected within both criminology and medical sociology.  Through the fourteen chapters of this book, a range of issues emerge that the authors of each contribution reflect upon. The ethical concerns that emerge as a consequence of undertaking prison health research are not ignored, indeed these lie at the heart of this book and resonate across all the chapters. Foregrounding these issues necessarily forms a significant focus of this introductory chapter.  

Alongside explicitly considering emerging ethicalissues, our contributing authors also have considered diverse aspects of innovation in research methodologies within the context of prison health research.  Many of the chapters are innovative through the methodologies that were used, often adapting and utilising research methods rarely used within prison settings. The book brings together chapters from students, scholars, practitioners and service users from a range of disciplines (including medical sociology, medical anthropology, criminology, psychology and public health).   

This book examines the profound implications that custodial settings - including prisons, young offender institutes and immigration removal centres - can have for the health of the people who live and work within them. It discusses the issues encountered when researching health in these settings and the innovative methods required to overcome them. The multiple and complex health needs of these people, often from extremely disadvantaged and marginalised communities, is generally neglected within both criminology and medical sociology despite increasing mortality rates and the marked increase in the population of older people in these settings. This edited book explores a range of contrasting perspectives on health and health research in custodial settings, emerging methodological and ethical aspects of conducting health research in custodial settings, and a number of innovative approaches to custodial setting health research, utilising a range of qualitative and quantitative methods. It brings together chapters from students, scholars, practitioners and service users from a range of disciplines including medical sociology, medical anthropology, criminology, and public health to provide a comprehensive appraisal of an overlooked concern, and insights into both scholarship and practice.