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Abstract
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Issue addressed: To describe the incidence and patterns of injuries sustained by inmates at two correctional centres in New South Wales, Australia.
Methods: A prospective study monitoring clinic presentations for injuries between July and December 2002. Nurses located within the clinics recorded injuries on a surveillance form and subsequently entered the data into a centralised database.
Results: During the study period, there were 160 new injury presentations to the two prison clinics; 109 were for accidental injuries and 50 for injuries resulting from violence. The most common types of injuries among prisoners were sports (32.5) and assaults (24.4). Sprains and strains were the most common types of sports injuries. Assaults occurred in similar proportions in both violent and non-violent offenders (26% vs. 24%, p=0.9) and were more common on Sundays. Most injuries (28%) occurred in the prison yard. Seventeen per cent of all injuries happened in the workplace with 63% caused by machinery. Workplace machinery accounted for half of all eye injuries. Analysis of the text descriptions identified that welding flash was responsible for 82% of all eye injuries.
Key words: Injury, prisoners, surveillance, intentional, unintentional. |