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Convictus Eesti is a non‐government organisation (NGO) operating in Estonia that receives some funding from another Convictus branch based in Sweden. Its main activities include extensive needle exchange programmes and provision of prevention information for injecting drug users and their families. The organisation also supports the government in the collection of accurate statistics concerning injecting drug use, such as the health status, socio‐economic circumstances and ethnicity of this particular group, and offers anonymous HIV testing, condom distribution and counselling in their office in Tallinn. In November 2004, Convictus Eesti received confirmation that it will get partial funding for its Day Centre plans in Tallinn from the Estonian Government. The Convictus organisation successfully co‐operates with many other organisations that work actively in penitentiary systems, for example Estonian Network of PLWH(Estonia), DIA ‐ LOGS (Latvia), MONAR (Poland), Blagodiynost (Ukraine), ENDIPP, CEEHRN. There are nine prisons in Estonia and approximately 400 prisoners out of 4700 are HIV+. Considering that HIV testing is voluntary, this number might be three or even four times greater. The average age of infected prisoners is 20‐25 years. Every week, between four and five new HIV cases are discovered in Estonian prisons, and this increase is attributed to the lack of knowledge about hygiene and the danger of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases among prisoners. In addition, the Ministry of Justice states that 70‐ 80% of prisoners use drugs at least once during their sentence.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the health promotion needs of vulnerable young prisoners and the existing health promotion activities in custodial settings in seven European Union (EU) Member States.

The research comprised two components: the first involved identifying existing health promotion practices. The second involved mapping out young offenders’ health promotion needs by carrying out a needs assessment. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were adopted. The quantitative element comprised surveys among young prisoners and prison staff and focused on the availability and perceived importance of health promotion activities in prison. The qualitative element comprised focus groups with young offenders and individual interviews with prison staff, field experts and NGO members.

The findings from the research have identified a number of similar, but also some diverse areas of unmet need for health promotion activities in prison settings across these diverse seven EU countries. There is no consistency of approach within and between countries regarding health promotion policy, guidance, resources and programmes for young prisoners. In order to improve the health of young prisoners and to establish and increase sustainability of existing health promotion programmes, there is a need for the establishment of National and EU standards.

Providing health promotion activities for young prisoners while in custodial settings is key to addressing their unmet health and well-being needs and to facilitate their reintegration back into the community. Despite the barriers identified by this research, health promotion is to some extent being delivered in the partner countries and provides a foundation upon which further implementation of health promotion activities can be built especially when the benefits of health promotion activities, like dealing with the common problems of alcohol and drug addiction, mental health and communicable diseases are linked to successful reintegration.