Assessment of Health Related Fitness among Inmates of Reform and Rehabilitation Centers in Jordan

Abstract

The Directorate of General Security in Jordan has created sport fields in new prisons, taking into consideration its importance for inmates. This is due to the belief that prisoners should be encouraged to spend interesting times, discharge their repressed energies, and to improve their physical and mental states in addition to strengthening their social relations. Providing members and specialist officers to attend to the inmates may decrease the problems inside prisons. This, however, can be achieved by engaging them with different kinds of physical activities. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the level of health-related fitness of the inmates in the reform and rehabilitation centers in Jordan and to differentiate between them according to the time span spent in the prison. The study sample consisted of 208 inmates who volunteered to participate in the tests out of 2400 inmates in the center. They were classified into different age categories and their condemnation period. The tests contained the health related physical fitness elements: muscle power, respiratory endurance, muscle strength, flexibility, and body composition in terms of body mass index. Results showed that there were statistical differences between the categories in this study in some tests. In conclusion, inmates should undergo physical programs to prevent them from contacting non-communicable diseases due to hypokinetic and sedentary life.