Abstract

The article reflects on the safeguard of prisoners’ health, endorsing a review of the equivalence of care principle. International laws define it as a minimum standard, but the gap between principle and practice is still significant. This reflection is as relevant as ever in the context of the present Covid-19 pandemic, which is analysed as a dramatic evidence of the general tendency to prioritize security instead of prisoners’ health. Moreover, the institutional reaction to the pandemic threatened many other rights (affectivity, education, training, job, etc.), all actually related to a wider concept of health. The debate on prisoners’ health is therefore situated within the broader frame of the functions of punishment and on the political and cultural aspects of punitiveness.