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A WA study on prisoner health and mental health provides some information onIndigenous prisoners. Hobbs et al. (2006) used data from the Western AustralianData Linkage System to examine the continuing health problems and the use ofhealth services by a cohort of prisoners released in WA between 1995 and 2001before and after their imprisonment. A key theme emerging from the research wasthe inter-relationship between social disadvantage, mental health problems and thepoor physical health of many prisoners. The high prevalence of mental healthproblems in prisoners demonstrated in the study by Hobbs et al. (2006) is consistentwith studies of prisoners in the United Kingdom (Brooke et al. 1996).Some of the findings from the WA study include:• Indigenous prisoners have multiple, long standing health issues, including thoselinked to alcohol and drug misuse.• Rates of hospital admissions for mental disorders were approximately twice ashigh in Indigenous male prisoners and three times as high in Indigenous femaleprisoners as in the Indigenous population of WA.• The relative risk of hospitalisation was highest for injury and poisoning and formental disorders (which includes acute and chronic effects of alcohol and drugaddiction).• In the five years after first release, 31 per cent of released Indigenous femaleprisoners and 24 per cent of non-Indigenous female prisoners had at least onehospital admission or mental health service contact for mental disorders. Forreleased male prisoners the proportions were 18 per cent for Indigenous and17 per cent for non-Indigenous prisoners (Hobbs et al. 2006).Juveniles in detentionThere is no systematic collection of data on the health status of juveniles indetention. Research shows that juveniles detainees are at high risk of sufferingmental health problems (BMA 2006; Kessler 2002; Vermeiren 2003). Two NSWhealth surveys provide some information on the mental health of young people incustody and on community orders (Fasher et al 1997; Kenny et al. 2006; NSWDepartment of Juvenile Justice 2003).The 2003 NSW Young People in Custody Health Survey (YPiCHS) examined thephysical and mental health needs of young people in custody (NSW Department ofJuvenile Justice 2003). A total of 319 young people were eligible for inclusion inthe survey. Of this group, 242 young people in custody were surveyed, 102 ofwhom were Indigenous (42 per cent). The YPiCHS found that:OVERCOMINGINDIGENOUSDISADVANTAGE 2007