Principles for making prisons and places of detention resilient to infectious diseases, including epidemic and pandemic threats

This document aims to provide national and subnational authorities involved in prison health and prison health-care services with practical principles and actions for addressing five management phases: prepare, prevent, detect and respond to infectious diseases, further strengthened by building connectedness of prisons with wider health systems. This document also aims to enhance capacity to tackle social determinants of health and to accelerate progress towards achieving the sustainable development goals, including universal health coverage. The document was developed through evidence review, remote expert consultation and interaction with experts during a dedicated international conference. The evidence review focused on the five management phases applied to the prison setting, leading to a draft collating the evidence, which was then used to identify key questions to be addressed and discussed during an international conference of stakeholders in prison health and global experts in infectious diseases in June 2023. A second evidence review was conducted during which identified evidence gaps were further searched. Although this document is primarily intended for policy-makers and policy-makers, it is expected that the document is also useful for the health-care workforce in prisons and other places of detention. Thus, all core principles presented are supported by recommendations for implementation