THE MEANING OF THE REQUEST FOR MENTAL AND SOMATIC CARE IN JAIL

The renovation of the health system in prisons (act of 28 January 1994 ) updated several themes related to psychiatry in jail : the multiplic ity of sources and motives of the request for mental care, its ties wi th the request for somatic care, the request for psychotropic drugs, t he appropriateness or inappropriateness of treating patients inside pr isons like outside, the particular status of the mentally sick in jail , the thinking trend that attaches a therapeutic value to imprisonment , the assumption of a reemergence of the ''hopital general'' (general hospital).