The WHO/Europe Health In Prisons Programme (HIPP) works as a platform for information dissemination, networking and good practice sharing in the area of prison health. With contributions from partners representing the main areas of the field, HIPP is an important resource for policy-makers, researchers and members of the public interested in prison health. The European Region is the only WHO region with a health in prisons programme.

As members of the HIPP, WHO/Europe and its partners share the following aims:

• to encourage cooperation and establish integrated work between public health systems, international nongovernmental organizations, and prison health systems to promote public health and reduce health inequalities;
• to encourage prisons to operate within the widely recognized international codes of human rights and medical ethics in providing services for prisoners;
• to help reduce reoffending by encouraging prison health services to contribute fully to each prisoner's rehabilitation, especially but not exclusively in relation to drug addiction and mental health problems;
• to reduce prisoners' exposure to communicable diseases, thereby preventing prisons from becoming focal points of infection;
• to encourage all prison health services, including health promotion services, to reach standards equivalent to those in the wider community;
• to promote a whole-of-government approach for the management and coordination of all relevant agencies and resources contributing to the health and well-being of prisoners; and
• to encourage health ministries to provide and be accountable for health care services in prisons and advocate healthy prison conditions.