The paradox of providing health care in an environment that is primarily oriented toward punishment has been demonstrated by corrections nursing staff as much in France as in Canada. The results of the comparative research indicate that the socio-professional and human environment in correctional institutions in the midst of which nursing care must be dispensed, constitutes the same insurmountable and restricting variable for nursing practice in Canada as it does in France. In Canada, nurses work as both agents of care and agents of social control; in contrast, French legislation has separated the responsibilities of health care and corrections. The effects of the separation between health care and corrections, illustrated within this article and in the French model examined, could provide important perspectives for the restructuring of nursing services offered in the Canadian system. In France, a distinction between the health care and correctional requirements of prisoners imposes a clarification of health care and correctional ideologies. As a result the nursing team essentially ignores the legal status of prisoners and for this reason does not have access to information contained in the prison files. The legal history/worthiness of the prisoner is not to be taken into account in the provision of care. The correctional apparatus is similarly excluded from health care information. This mutual independence of the health care and corrections ideologies is the result of a 1994 law to fill major gaps in the organization of health care for prisoners, resulting from a merger of health care and corrections. The French law distinction between health care and correctional activities, has promoted a better identification of the socio-professional roles for both the nursing staff and the corrections officers, and has also reestablished public confidence regarding nursing care with the French prison system. References