There is increased recognition of prisoners’ rights to healthcare and the right to be protectedagainst inhumane and degrading treatment. A prisoner has a right to the healthcare equivalent of any person in their community. This trend has encouraged many correctionalpolicymakers to engage in efforts to improve the levels of correctional healthcare in thecontext of human rights and to establish international standards of correctional healthcare,such as those cited in ‘Making Standard Work’ and ‘Health in Prisons’. This study compressed the issues of the right to healthcare into four parts and applied to the correctional healthcare system in Korea. In Korea, according to the results of the study,the right to healthcare of inmates in correctional institutions is guaranteed to some extent, but the gap between the normative frame and the reality is prominent. First, in the living conditions at correctional institutions, the problem of overcrowding is remarkably noticeable. With respect to ensuring correctional medical resources, a shortage of medicalpersonnel and the inferior state of the sickrooms that do not meet the criteria were found.Particularly, focusing on outside medical care, the issue of correctional medical expenditurehas been highlighted, due to the continuous increase in medical costs. Finally, the efforts for health promotion and treatment of mental health care are merely formalities. In orderto reduce the gap between international standards and actual conditions of correctionalinstitutions and to promote these rights effectively, close cooperation between the responsiblebodies is required.

INTRODUCTION
 INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS OF CORRECTIONALHEALTHCARE
  ICESCR and General Comment 14
  Making Standards Work
  WHO Guidelines
 OVERVIEW OF CORRECTIONAL HEALTH IN SOUTHKOREA
  Organization of Korea Correctional Service
  Correctional Healthcare Related Laws
  Applying International Standards to Prison Healthcare in Korea
 ISSUES OF THE CORRECTIONAL HEALTHCARE SYSTEMIN SOUTH KOREA
  Correctional Service Environment
  Correctional Medical Resources
  Health Care Delivery and Financing System
  Health Promotion and Mental Health
 CONCLUSION
 

• So-young LEE(Professor at the Department of Social Welfare, Hanzhong University)