PECULIAR HEALTH CHALLENGES FACING OLDER INMATES IN KUJE MEDIUM SECURITY PRISON, FCT ABUJA

Every society is known and measured by the way 7nost vulnerable members (the aged and children) are treated. In Nigeria, prisoners' health and health care delivery are below United Nations' standard of minimum treatment of prisoners and this has inexorably plunged the aged inmates into a lot of health challenges. On that note, this paper is set to;

• examine the general health status of aged inmates in Kuje medium security prison, ascertain the peculiar health challenges facing aged inmates, determine the causes of these health challenges facing inmates among other objectives. The Health Belief Model was used to further buttress health conditions of inmates and a survey design was used to gather data through a Likert scale structured questionnaire from 62 sample size drawn through a census sampling technique. The research questions were analyzed using frequencies, mean and ranking. Afterward findings revealed that the health of aged in mates in Kuje prison is generally unhealthy and are faced with peculiar health challenges such as depression, ulcer, communicable diseases, chest pain, stroke, among others. This is as a result of poor feeding, isolation, congestion and general unhealthy living conditions. Therefore, it is recommended that parole based on health grounds should be introduced especially for chronically ill older inmates so as to enable them get better health care at home since the prison health care system is not sophisticated enough to handle illnesses that demands expensive and extensive care.