Nursing in prisons: developing the specialty of offender health care.

This article, the first in a five-part series, examines offender health care as a specialty. It explores the role of the nurse and the developments that have occurred over the last ten years in this field. In later articles, the authors discuss leadership skills for nurses working in the criminal justice system, assessment of the acutely ill patient, management of long-term conditions, and the future of nursing in offender health care.