https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/26326663241311554
Norway claims that its prison follows the import model which means prisoners get the same high quality healthcare as everyone else from outside doctors but in reality it is kind of a mess. There is an insolvable conflict between care and control. Most prisoners agree that healthcare inside is lower quality harder to get and dictated by secure and not by health.
But why is it broken? Well it's because you can't be a normal patient when you're locked inside a prison healthcare staff are supposed to be independent but they eventually emerge with the prison system so there is an identity crisis with doctors as they see you as a prisoner, someone who may be rescue lying or drug seeking before they see you as an actual patient a.k.a. someone who is sick and in pain. There's also a security first measure as if medical needs clash with the prison rules security will win every time.
The article broke down why prisoners hate the system and it broke down into three categories:
They restrict group A and B drugs a.k.a. addictive stuff to stop trading. You lose access to services you had on the outside the second you walk through the gates as well and while the rest of Norway uses digital booking on text messaging. To book prisoners they have to use handwritten notes and these disappear or get rid by guards so there is zero privacy
You also have no choice while you're in a prison so outside you can swap doctors but inside you're stuck with whoever the prison hired and if you don't trust them then you're out of luck but to get anything done, you have to nag argue or get aggressive if you don't put up a fight, you will get ignored.
And finally there seems to be a patient centred compassion a.k.a. stigma with prisoners as doctors assume everyone is faking it to get high or skip work and doctors don't really trust prisoners but prisoners don't trust doctors as well and this cycle means prisoners just stop asking for help unless it's an emergency
So in summary the bad reputation of prison health comes from two things one being the objective flaws the system being actually worse with shredded notes and bad access to Medicare and the murky filter which means prisoners feel stigmatised or controls if you have minor mistake by a nurse as a personal attack or proof of incompetence.
Essentially prisoners agreed that you don't get help there, most prisoners have a us versus them mentality towards the health department and this means that being sick and imprisoned at the same time makes the punishment twice as hard. It is failing because you can't have a pocket of normality in a place bent on punishment