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Public health, access to healthcare, and mortality
On this page, the Prison Policy Initiative has curated all of the research about the impact of the justice system on health and mortality that we know of. You can also see a selection of our best original research on this topic on our Health page. For research on other criminal justice topics, see our Research Library homepage.
(New)Cancer Mortality in Louisiana's Correctional System, 2015-2021Totadri Dhimal et al, November, 2024“The cancer-specific [age-specific death rate] was 158 per 100,000 incarcerated individuals compared with 168 per 100,000 among nonincarcerated Louisiana residents and 149 per 100,000 in the US.”
Implementing the Medicaid Reentry Waiver in California Key Policy and Operational Insights from 11 Counties Justice System Partners, October, 2024“Most people detained in [California] jail will meet the Medi-Cal eligibility criteria. Counties estimate that approximately 80% of detainees will meet the additional CalAIM JI [pre-release Medicaid] health criteria.”
Disparities in Medication Use for Criminal Justice System-Referred Opioid Use Disorder TreatmentJ. Travis Donahoe, Julie M. Donohue, & Brendan K. Saloner, September, 2024“49% of individuals referred to opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment by noncriminal justice sources received MOUD. A total of 34% of individuals referred to treatment by criminal justice sources received the same treatment.”
(New)Medical Debt Behind Bars The punishing impact of copays, fees, and other carceral medical debt National Consumer Law Center, September, 2024“Medical debt can be a substantial financial burden and, if left unpaid, can lead to collection calls, lawsuits, wage garnishments, license suspensions, and ruined credit.”
Peer Education as a Tool to Improve Health Knowledge for People Who Are Incarcerated: A Secondary Analysis of Data From the Indiana Peer Education Program ECHO Andrea D. Janota, Patrick F. Hibbard, Meghan E. Meadows, et al, August, 2024“Training individuals who are [in prison in Indiana] as peer educators on relevant public health topics increases health knowledge and behavior intentions and likely results in improvements in personal and public health outcomes.”
Prescription Patterns in Jails Before and Since the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Multisite Serial Cross-Sectional Investigation Amber H. Simpler, William Jett, Abdullah Ahsan, & Yash Arun Patade, August, 2024“[From 2019-2023], the number of prescriptions in jails for various drug classes [grew], particularly central nervous system agents (13.5% to 17.7%)...The increase in prescriptions points toward a growing demand for managing pain, psychiatric conditions...”
Access to Care and Outcomes With the Affordable Care Act for Persons With Criminal Legal Involvement A Scoping Review James Rene Jolin, Benjamin A. Barsky, Carrie G. Wade, & Meredith B. Rosenthal, August, 2024“[In this meta-analysis,] the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was associated with an increase in insurance coverage and a decrease in recidivism rates among people with criminal legal involvement.”
"Expected to happen": perspectives on post-release overdose from recently incarcerated people with opioid use disorder Pryce S. Michener, Elyse Bianchet, Shannon Fox, et al, July, 2024“This study provides novel insights into the perceptions of post-release overdose risk from people with OUD who have experienced incarceration in Massachusetts jails and received MOUD while incarcerated.”
Delivering Justice - A Case for the Medical Civil Rights ActPaywall :(Medical Civil Rights Initiative, June, 2024“Deaths in carceral facilities account for approx. 75% of custodial deaths; the remainder occur during the process of arrest. Although illness is the leading cause of death in carceral institutions, 6 out of 10 arrest-related deaths are due to homicide.”
Eight Key Considerations for Successful Implementation of New Medicaid Reentry PoliciesHealth and Reentry Project, June, 2024“Successful implementation of these policies requires that correctional facilities have data and IT systems that can share eligibility, enrollment, and pertinent patient clinical information across community and correctional systems.”
Two years after the end of Roe v. Wade, most women on probation & parole have to ask permission to travel for abortion care Prison Policy Initiative, June, 2024“In all, 41 states have some kind of abortion ban in place, whether "total bans" or bans based on gestational duration. In every one of these states, standard conditions of probation and/or parole require permission to travel out of state or county.”
Hungry and Malnourished: Food Service in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Pennsylvania Prison Society, May, 2024“70-80% of survey respondents in Pennsylvania prisons reported being hungry every day between meals, [...] menus likely contribute to diet-related illness, [... and] hunger forces people to buy expensive junk food from commissary.”
Share of Adult Suicides After Recent Jail ReleaseTed R. Miller, Lauren M. Weinstock, Brian K. Ahmedani, et al., May, 2024“Among 7 million adults released from incarceration in 2019, nearly 20% of suicides occurred among those who were released from jail in the past year and 7% were by those in their second year of jail release.”
Mental and physical health morbidity among people in prisons: an umbrella reviewLouis Favril, Josiah D Rich, Jake Hard, & Seena Fazel, April, 2024“Among incarcerated adults, the 6-month prevalence was 11% for major depression, 10% for PTSD, and 4% for psychotic illness...18% of people were antibody-positive for hepatitis C virus, 2.6% - 5.2% found for hepatitis B, HIV, and TB.”
End-of-Life Care Planning: Perspectives of Returning Citizens Paywall :(Erin Kitt-Lewis & Susan J. Loeb, April, 2024“Most of the participating returning citizens [in the qualitative study] did not have even a basic understanding of advanced directives/care planning.”
Prison Buprenorphine Implementation and Postrelease Opioid Use Disorder OutcomesBenjamin J. Bovell-Ammon, Shapei Yan, Devon Dunn, Elizabeth A. Evans, Peter D. Friedmann, Alexander Y. Walley, Marc R. LaRochelle, March, 2024“In a comparison between people released prior to and after making buprenorphine available in state prisons, postrelease buprenorphine increased from 11% of people released to 21% of people released and postrelease naltrexone receipt decreased.”
Medicaid's New Role in Advancing Reentry: Key Policy Changes Health and Reentry Project, March, 2024“The minimum services states must provide to be approved for a waiver are: case management, medication assisted treatment (MAT), and a 30-day supply of medications upon release. States can go above and beyond these three services...”
Jail Characteristics and Availability of Opioid Treatment Services: Results from a Nationally Representative Survey Paywall :(Albert M. Kopak & Sierra D. Thomas, March, 2024“Jail facilities located in the Northeast, larger jails, those in urban areas, and detention centers with higher turnover rates are significantly more likely to provide a wider variety of opioid treatment services.”
Forgotten Fundamentals: A Review of State Legislation on Nutrition for Incarcerated Pregnant and Postpartum People Paywall :(Julia Vitagliano, Talia Shalev, Jennifer B Saunders, Ellen Mason, Jamie Stang, Rebecca Shlafer, & Bethany Kotlar, March, 2024“Less than a third of states had nutrition-related mandates [for incarcerated pregnant people] and no states had statutes that included all key nutrition recommendations.”
State Medicaid Initiatives Targeting Substance Use Disorder in Criminal Legal Settings, 2021Paywall :(Cashell D Lewis, Christina Andrews, Amanda J Abraham, Melissa Westlake, Faye S Taxman, & Colleen M Grogan, March, 2024“In 2021, the majority of states did not report any targeted Medicaid initiatives for persons with substance use disorders residing in criminal legal settings (jails, prisons, community corrections).”
Mental health, chronic and infectious conditions among pregnant persons in US state prisons and local jails 2016-2017Caitlin A Hendricks, Karissa M Rajagopal, Carolyn B Sufrin, Camille Kramer, & Monik C Jimenez, March, 2024“Of the 445 newly admitted pregnant people in prisons and 243 in jails, 34% in prison and 23.5% in jail had a substance use disorder, and 27.4% of those in prison and 17.7% in jail had a psychiatric diagnosis. 20% in prison and 6.6% in jail had hepatitis C”
A Decade of Lives Lost: A report of in-custody deaths in California between 2011-2022Care First California, February, 2024“Of the 2,312 deaths that occurred in Sheriff's custody across California, the majority of people died after they were taken to jail but before the resolution of their case...Nearly a quarter of deaths occurred before individuals entered the jail.”
Incarceration History and Access to and Receipt of Health Care in the USJingxuan Zhao, Jessica Star, Xuesong Han, Zhiyuan Zheng, Qinjin Fan, Sylvia Kewei Shi, Stacey A. Fedewa, K. Robin Yabroff, Leticia M. Nogueira, February, 2024“People with incarceration history had lower percentages of having a usual source of care or receiving preventive services: physical exams, blood pressure, cholesterol, or glucose tests, dental check ups, & breast and colorectal cancer screenings.”
(New)Nutritional Criminology: Why the Emerging Research on Ultra-Processed Food Matters to Health and Justice Susan L. Prescott et al, January, 2024“Black people have the highest incarceration rates in the US, and given the emerging research on structural racism in food inequalities, including the clustering of fast food outlets...the topic should be more prominent within biopsychosocial discourse.”
Addicted to punishment: Jails and prisons punish drug use far more than they treat it Prison Policy Initiative, January, 2024“Many people who use drugs and need care are arrested and jailed over and over until, finally, one event lands them in prison. We estimate that more than 578,000 people (47%) in prison in 2022 had a substance use disorder in the year prior to admission.”
Structural Racism, Mass Incarceration, and Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Severe Maternal MorbidityElleni M. Hailu, Corinne A. Riddell, Patrick T. Bradshaw, Jennifer Ahern, Suzan L. Carmichael, & Mahasin S. Mujahid, January, 2024“In this study of 10 million live hospital births across California from 1997-2018, Black and Hispanic/Latinx birthing people residing in counties with high Black-White jail incarceration inequity had increased odds of severe maternal morbidity.”
Recommendations for Medicaid Coverage of Opioid Use Disorder Services in Jails and PrisonsHealth and Reentry Project and Viaduct Consulting, LLC, January, 2024(This slide deck covers findings from three reports encouraging state and local governments to expand access to quality, evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder in prisons and jails by leveraging Medicaid coverage.)
History of incarceration and age-related neurodegeneration: Testing models of genetic and environmental risks in a longitudinal panel study of older adults Peter Tanksley, Matthew W. Logan, and J.C. Barnes, December, 2023“These findings support the interpretation that APOE-e4 genotype and Lifetime incarceration operate as independent risk factors for cognitive impairment in later adulthood...together, [however, they may] inflict a multiplicative increase in risk.”
"We're Hungry in Here": D.C. Department of Corrections Food Survey Results dcgreens, December, 2023“Six in ten residents responded that they "rarely" or "never" eat breakfast, seven in ten "rarely" or "never" eat lunch (most commonly bologna sandwiches) and six in ten respondents reported "rarely" or "never" eating dinner.”
Vaccine Effectiveness Against SARS-CoV-2 Related Hospitalizations in People who had Experienced Homelessness or Incarceration - Findings from the Minnesota EHR Consortium Malini B. DeSilva, Gregory Knowlton, Nayanjot K. Rai, et al., December, 2023“Despite lower vaccination rates and potential for higher COVID-19 exposures in people experiencing homelessness or incarceration, COVID-19 vaccines reduced risk for SARS-CoV-2 related hospitalizations.”
The Prevalence of Cognitive Impairment and Dementia in Incarcerated Older AdultsPaywall :(Jacques Baillargeon, Lannette C Linthicum, Owen J Murray, et al., December, 2023“35% of our random sample of incarcerated older adults in Texas prisons met the threshold for mild cognitive impairment and 9.1% met the threshold for dementia.”
Racial differences in testing for infectious diseases: An analysis of jail intake data Alysse G. Wurcel, Rubeen Guardado, Emily D. Grussing, et al., December, 2023“In one Massachusetts jail 2016-2020, Black non-Hispanic and Hispanic people were more likely to opt-in to and complete infectious disease testing than white people. These findings could be related to racial disparities in access to care in the community.”
Decision-Making for Hospitalized Incarcerated Patients Lacking Decisional CapacityPaywall :(Sarah Batbold et al, December, 2023“Clinicians will encounter incarcerated patients in both hospital and clinic settings and should receive education on how to support ethically and legally sound decision-making practices for this medically vulnerable population.”
Quality of Surgical Care Within the Criminal Justice Health Care SystemRui-Min Mao et al, December, 2023“[30-day readmission and mortality] outcomes were comparable between the Texas prison population and the general population.... However, morbidity was significantly higher in the prison population.”
Mortality Among Individuals Released from U.S. Prisons: Does Military History Matter? Minnesota Department of Corrections, November, 2023“When model specification was improved by accounting for the sociodemographic and legal histories of returnees, we found that veterans showed no greater or less risk of mortality compared to non-veterans.”
Incarceration Status Among Individuals Obtaining Abortion in the United States, 2020Marielle Kirstein, Liza Fuentes, and Carolyn Sufrin, November, 2023“Sixty-seven clinics across 25 states and the District of Columbia provided more than 300 abortions to incarcerated patients in 2020. Eleven of these clinics are in states that now have total or near-total abortion bans.”
Pathways to Wellness: Health Needs of Black Women After Incarceration National Black Women's Justice Institute, November, 2023“The Black women in this study want to take preventative measures to address and improve their health and wellness. However, accessing healthcare after incarceration remains challenging.”
The High Costs of Cheap Food: Eating in West Virginia Prisons West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, September, 2023“According to the Department of Agriculture, as of August 9, 2023, the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) has failed to submit any documentation required by the Fresh Food Act since 2019.”
Extreme Heat and Suicide Watch Incidents Among Incarcerated MenDavid H. Cloud, Brie Williams, and Regine Haardorfer et al, August, 2023“The incidence rate of daily suicide incidents increased by 29% when the heat index reached the level of caution and by 36% when reaching extreme caution.”
The aging prison population: Causes, costs, and consequences Prison Policy Initiative, August, 2023“According to the most recent data on local jails in the U.S., from 2020-2021 ...the segment of the jail population aged 55+ grew by a greater proportion than any other age group, 24% compared to an average increase of 15% across all other ages.”
COVID-19 Vaccine Refusal and Medical Distrust Held by Correctional OfficersErin Michelle Turner Kerrison & Jordan M Hyatt, July, 2023“[In a sample of PA Department of Corrections staff], 73.5% non-security personnel answered that they would accept a vaccine, compared to half (48.8%) of corrections officers.”
Incarceration of Youths in an Adult Correctional Facility and Risk of Premature DeathIan A. Silver, Daniel C. Semenza, and Joseph L. Nedelec, July, 2023“Approximately 8% of youths incarcerated in adult correctional facilities were estimated to die by the age of 39 years. In comparison, just over 2% of youths without legal system contact before [age 18] were estimated to have died by the age of 39 years.”
Heat, floods, pests, disease, and death: What climate change means for people in prison Prison Policy Initiative, July, 2023“The researchers found for every 10 degree increase above the prison location's mean summer temperature, nearly 5% of deaths (from all causes) occurring there could be attributed to the heat.”
Jail Conditions And Mortality: Death Rates Associated With Turnover, Jail Size, And Population Characteristics Jessica L. Adler and Weiwei Chen, June, 2023“Jails with higher turnover rates, capacity occupied, & populations were more likely to have higher overall mortality. Deaths due to suicide, drugs and alcohol, and homicide showed a significant association with high turnover.”
Louisiana Deaths Behind Bars 2015-2021Incarceration Transparency, June, 2023“Since our last report analyzing deaths 2015-2019, an additional 375 incarcerated people have died behind bars. Our public records requests also produced documents on an additional 7 deaths that occurred 2015-2019.”
Breaking Ground: How California is Using Medicaid to Improve the Health of People Leaving Incarceration Health and Reentry Project, May, 2023“Incarcerated adults who are enrolled in Medi-Cal and meet specific criteria and all Medi-Cal/CHIP-enrolled youth in youth correctional settings will qualify for Medi-Cal pre-release services.”
The State of Prison Food in New England: A Survey of Federal and State Policy Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law, April, 2023“Cost reductions that result in nutritionally inadequate food may ultimately cost taxpayers more as healthcare in public prisons constitutes their largest expenditure--estimates suggest these costs amount to over $12 billion per year.”
Estimated Costs and Outcomes Associated With Use and Nonuse of Medications for Opioid Use Disorder During Incarceration and at Release in Massachusetts Avik Chatterjee et al, April, 2023“We found that initiating and continuing MOUD treatment during incarceration could avert a substantial number of opioid overdose deaths at a relatively low cost ($8 million over 5 years) and would be a highly cost-effective intervention.”
Health Insurance and Mental Health Treatment Use Among Adults With Criminal Legal Involvement After Medicaid Expansion Paywall :(Benjamin A. Howell, Laura C. Hawks, Lilanthi Balasuriya, Virginia W. Chang, Emily A. Wang, & Tyler N. A. Winkelman, April, 2023“Medicaid expansion was associated with an 18 percentage-point increase in insurance coverage but no change in receipt of substance use treatment among individuals with substance use disorder.”
Mortality, health, and poverty: the unmet needs of people on probation and parole Prison Policy Initiative, April, 2023“Three in 10 people under community supervision have substance use disorders, four times the rate of substance use disorders in the general population.”
Race-Specific Risk Factors for All-Cause, Natural, and Unnatural Deaths Among Individuals Released from [Minnesota] State Prison Minnesota Department of Corrections, March, 2023“Both all-cause mortality and mortality due to specific causes of death were much higher among individuals released from [Minn.] state prison than among the general population.”
Cancer incidence among incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals: A statewide retrospective cohort study Jenerius A. Aminawung, Pamela R. Soulos, Oluwadamilola T. Oladeru, et al., March, 2023“Among Connecticut residents from 2005-16, cancer incidence was lower in incarcerated individuals, but higher in recently released individuals compared with the general population, and across all race and ethnic strata.”
Heat-related mortality in U.S. state and private prisons: A case-crossover analysis Julianne Skarha et al, March, 2023“A 10-degree (F) increase was associated with a 5.2% increase in total mortality and a 6.7% increase in heart disease mortality. The association between temperature and suicides was delayed, peaking around lag 3 (exposure at three days prior to death).”
Dementia in the incarcerated population: a retrospective study using the South Carolina Alzheimer's disease registry, USA Paywall :(Margaret Chandlee Miller et al, February, 2023“For ages 55 and above in South Carolina, the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias is 6.7% in the general, non-incarcerated population compared to 14.4% in the incarcerated population.”
How a Medicare rule that ends financial burdens for the incarcerated leaves some behindPrison Policy Initiative, January, 2023“For people released from prison after January 1, 2023, there are new Medicare enrollment rules that create a 12-month Special Enrollment Period during which recently released people can enroll in Medicare Parts A and B without any financial penalties....”
Homelessness and Contact with the Criminal Legal System among U.S. Combat Veterans: An Exploration of Potential Mediating Factors Paywall :(Ugur Orak et al, December, 2022“A large proportion (53.6%) of the association between homelessness and criminal legal system involvement was accounted for by indirect associations, most notably via drug use disorder (22.1%), moral injury (11.4%), and alcohol use disorder (10.7%).”
Jail Health and Early Release PracticesBrandon L. Garrett, Deniz Ariturk, Jessica Carda-Auten, and David L. Rosen, December, 2022“Few states have rules that create formal legal vehicles for non-admission or release from jails for health-related reasons.”
Performance Measures for Medication-assisted Treatment in Correctional Settings: A Framework for Implementation Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association, December, 2022“An individual released from custody may not realize that even brief incarcerations could result in reduced tolerance levels and resuming use at the same rate and/or dose of pre-incarceration, leading to a fatal unintentional overdose.”
Jail-based reentry programming to support continued treatment with medications for opioid use disorder: Qualitative perspectives and experiences among jail staff in Massachusetts Atsushi Matsumoto et al, November, 2022“Coordination of medications for opioid use disorder post-release continuity of care requires training supporting staff in reentry planning...and bridging partnerships between in-jail MOUD programs and community providers.”
Global governance and climate stress of incarcerated women: the case of the U.S Paywall :(Daniela Jauk-Ajamie, November, 2022“This paper takes the United States as a case study on the gendered implications of hyper-incarceration in the age of climate emergency.”
Provision of Air Conditioning and Heat-Related Mortality in Texas PrisonsJulianna Skarha et al, November, 2022“We found that 13% of mortality during warm months may be attributable to extreme heat in prisons without air conditioning in Texas. This is approximately a 30-fold increase in heat-attributed deaths when compared with estimates in the US population.”
Why states should change Medicaid rules to cover people leaving prisonPrison Policy Initiative, November, 2022“Legislation like [the Medicaid Reentry Act] would vastly expand access to healthcare after incarceration, closing the dangerous healthcare coverage gap and reducing preventable deaths and health problems that occur shortly after release.”
Health Care Access and Use Among Children & Adolescents Exposed to Parental Incarceration - United States, 2019 Rohan Khazanchi, Nia J. Heard-Garris, & Tyler N.A. Winkelman, October, 2022“Parental incarceration was associated with an additional 123,703 children with no usual source of care, 114,795 with forgone dental care needs, 75,434 with delayed mental health care needs, and 53,678 with forgone mental health care needs”
The Links Between Disability, Incarceration, & Social ExclusionLaurin Bixby, Stacey Bevan, & Courtney Boen, October, 2022“66% of incarcerated people self-reported a disability, with Black, Hispanic, and multiracial disabled men especially overrepresented... Disabled incarcerated people were more likely to have previously resided in other institutions.”
Reducing Deaths in Law Enforcement Custody: Identifying High-Priority Needs for the Criminal Justice System Duren Banks et al, October, 2022“[Interview and virtual group] Participants concurred that there is currently insufficient data to study the effectiveness of any policies or programs designed to reduce law enforcement-related deaths.”
A Bitter PillAlabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice, September, 2022“While it's rare for people whose only offense is simple possession to land in prison, it is far from unheard of...Convictions for these collateral offenses can be what...sends them to prison for crimes that are driven by addiction, not malice.”
Special Report: Summer Heat in New Jersey Prisons New Jersey Office of the Corrections Ombudsperson, September, 2022“The Ombuds office confirmed that ice was provided on hot days, however, some facilities provided ice free of charge several times per day while others required a minimal payment or provided ice only on a single shift each day.”
Incarceration status and cancer mortality: A population-based study Oluwadamilola T. Oladeru et al, September, 2022“Incarcerated individuals were diagnosed with cancer at a distant stage more frequently compared to those recently released or never incarcerated.”
Chronic Punishment: The unmet health needs of people in state prisons Prison Policy Initiative, June, 2022“In this analysis of a unique, large-scale survey of people in state prisons, we add to the existing research showing that state prisons fall far short of their constitutional duty to meet the essential health needs of people in their custody.”
Universal health coverage and incarcerationTyler N. A. Winkleman et al, June, 2022“Particularly in countries with high incarceration rates, failure to include custodial settings in calculations of the service coverage index might result in overestimation of progress towards UN Sustainable Development Goal 3.8.1.”
Correctional Medical Care for Female Prisoners: Legal Issues Surrounding Inadequate Treatment of Chronic and/or Preexisting Health Conditions Paywall :(Chelsi Lamberton and Michael S. Vaughn, June, 2022“Through the lens of federal court litigation...this article discusses women who brought legal challenges, questioning the adequacy of correctional medical care rendered to their chronic and preexisting health conditions.”
Climate Change and Incarcerated Populations: Confronting Environmental and Climate Injustices Behind Bars Emily C. Gribble and David N. Pellow, June, 2022“[We] focus on the brutal conditions incarcerated firefighters and natural disaster workers face while confronting year-round wildfire season as well as in the aftermath of climate-linked industrial accidents and weather events.”
COVID-19 Vaccination of People Experiencing Homelessness and Incarceration in MinnesotaPaywall :(Riley D. Shearer, Katherine Diaz Vickery, Peter Bodurtha, et al., June, 2022“By the end of 2021, 64% of the general population in Minnesota and 71% of people recently incarcerated in prison had completed the COVID-19 vaccine series, far exceeding the rate among people experiencing homelessness (34%) or jail incarceration (30%).”
Nothing But Time: Elderly Americans Serving Life Without Parole Sentencing Project, June, 2022“More than 55,000 Americans are incarcerated in state and federal prisons with no chance of parole, reflecting a 66% rise in people serving LWOP since 2003.”
Hell and High Water: How Climate Change Can Harm Prison Residents and Jail Residents, and Why COVID-19 Conditions Litigation Suggests Most Federal Courts Will Wait-And-See When Asked to Intervene Paloma Wu and D. Korbin Felder, June, 2022“Prison and jail residents in most parts of the country will have difficulty using the courts to obtain preliminary relief to prevent climate-related injuries and harms.”
HIV in Prisons, 2020 - Statistical TablesBureau of Justice Statistics, May, 2022“From 2016 to 2020, the number of male prisoners who had HIV declined an average of 6% per year, while the number of female prisoners with HIV declined 10% per year on average.”
Motherhood and Pregnancy Behind Bars: Texas Must Rethink How It's Treating Mothers and Families Texas Center for Justice and Equity, May, 2022“Disregarding women's requests for help had occurred so often in Texas corrections facilities that the Legislature passed [a bill requiring] corrections officers to promptly respond when a woman was experiencing labor and take her to a medical facility.”
Reducing the Health Harms of IncarcerationAspen Health Strategy Group, April, 2022“Incarceration is a primary source of poor health for individuals, families, communities, and our nation as a whole. The consequences of these various sources of harm continue long after release, with higher rates of mortality and morbidity.”
Evaluation of Changes in US Health Insurance Coverage for Individuals With Criminal Legal Involvement in Medicaid Expansion and Nonexpansion States, 2010 to 2017 Benjamin A. Howell, Laura Hawks, Emily A. Wang, and Tyler N. A. Winkelman, April, 2022“Medicaid expansion was associated with a 14.9-percentage point increase in insurance coverage...for low-income adults with recent criminal legal involvement.”
Fentanyl in Colorado: Overview and recommendations for addressing the overdose crisis Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, March, 2022(This brief describes the failure to prevent fentanyl overdose by increasing criminal punishment, and instead offers public health and harm reduction strategies like increasing medication-assisted treatment in prisons and jails.)
The prison context itself undermines public health and vaccination effortsPrison Policy Initiative, March, 2022“49% of respondents reported that they generally trust doctors and healthcare providers to make medically correct judgements, but only 9% of respondents trust doctors or healthcare providers in a prison to make medically correct judgments.”
Elderly, Detained, and Justice-Involved: The Most Incarcerated Generation Rachel Bedard, Joshua Vaughn and Angela Silletti Murolo, March, 2022“A birth cohort born in the 1960s and 70s were set on a path towards lifetime justice involvement as a result of having come into adolescence during the height of the crack era and crime waves of the 1980s and early 1990s.”
Hepatitis C Epidemiology in a Large Urban Jail: A Changing Demographic Emily Hoff, Andrea Warden, Ruby Taylor, and Ank E. Nijhawan, March, 2022“Among people in Dallas County Jail from 2015-19, HCV antibody positivity was significantly associated with older age, female sex, non-Hispanic White race versus non-Hispanic Black race, & being released to prison versus not.”
Elderly, Detained, and Justice-Involved: The Most Incarcerated Generation Rachel Bedard, Joshua Vaughn and Angela Silletti Murolo, March, 2022“A birth cohort born in the 1960s and 70s were set on a path towards lifetime justice involvement as a result of having come into adolescence during the height of the crack era and crime waves of the 1980s and early 1990s.”
Opioid Overdose Deaths Among Formerly Incarcerated Persons and the General Population: North Carolina, 2000-2018 Paywall :(Shabbar I Ranapurwala et al, February, 2022“While nationwide opioid overdose death rates declined from 2017 to 2018, OOD rates among North Carolina formerly incarcerated people increased by about a third, largely from fentanyl and its analogs.”
Canary in the Coal Mine: A Profile of Staff COVID Deaths in the Texas Prison System Alexi Jones, Michele Deitch, and Alycia Welch, Prison and Jail Innovation Lab, February, 2022“A total of 78 TDCJ employees have died from COVID... With 26 deaths for every 10,000 TDCJ employees, Texas has the highest rate of staff deaths among the largest prison systems in the country and the second highest rate of death nationwide.”
COVID looks like it may stay. That means prison medical copays must go.Prison Policy Initiative, February, 2022“Medical copays encourage a dangerous waiting game for incarcerated people, correctional agencies, and the public, with little payoff in terms of offsetting medical costs and reducing "unnecessary" office visits.”
Mortality in a Multi-State Cohort of Former State Prisoners, 2010-2015U.S. Census Bureau Center for Economic Studies, February, 2022“We found that non-Hispanic white former prisoners were more likely to die within five years after prison release and more likely to die in the initial weeks after release compared to racial minorities and Hispanics.”
Availability of Medications for the Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder Among Pregnant and Postpartum Individuals in US Jails Carolyn Sufrin, Camille T. Kramer, Mishka Terplan et al, January, 2022“A substantial proportion of US jails did not provide access to MOUD to pregnant people with OUD. Although most jails reported continuing to provide MOUD to individuals who were receiving medication before incarceration, few jails initiated MOUD..”
Incarceration and subsequent risk of suicide: A statewide cohort study Paywall :(Erin Renee Morgan et al, January, 2022“Suicide risk was 62% higher among previously incarcerated individuals compared with the general population.”
Association Between Assistance With Medicaid Enrollment and Use of Health Care After Incarceration Among Adults With a History of Substance Use Marguerite E. Burns et al, January, 2022“After implementation of [Medicaid] enrollment assistance, the likelihood of any outpatient visit increased by 7.7 percentage points, a relative change of 47.8% receiving this service within 30 days of release.”
"My Greatest Fear is To Be a Lab Rat For the State": COVID-19 and Vaccine Hesitancy in NYS Prisons Correctional Association of New York, January, 2022“Of 166 respondents, 42.7% said that DOCCS administering the vaccine would make them less likely to accept the vaccine (n=71).”
Using the Americans with Disabilities Act to Reduce Overdose DeathsDavid Howard Sinkman and Gregory Dorchak, January, 2022“The Department [of Justice] has a powerful enforcement tool to address the opioid crisis: helping jails and prisons satisfy their obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act by providing all medications used to treat Opioid Use Disorder (OUD).”
Pandemics, Prisons, and Policy: An Overview of Criminal Justice and Public Health in Tennessee Hadassah Betapudi and Anna Walton, December, 2021“Among the 50 states, Tennessee ranks 20th for the highest number of state prisoners infected with coronavirus per capita, with 7,290 total cases.20 Significantly, this means there is one known case per every three prisoners.”
Thermal (In)equity and incarceration: A necessary nexus for geographers Paywall :(Alex R Colucci, Daniel J Vecellio, and Michael J Allen, December, 2021“In carceral spaces, thermal exposure agitates...complex situations, shaping a confluence of various economic, political, and ecological intersectionalities.”
Mortality in Local Jails, 2000-2019Bureau of Justice Statistics, December, 2021“A total of 1,200 persons died in local jails in 2019, a more than 5% increase from 2018 (1,138 deaths) and a 33% increase from 2000 (903), when the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) began its Mortality in Correctional Institutions data collection.”
Losing Years Doing Time: Incarceration Exposure and Accelerated Biological Aging among African American Adults Paywall :(Mark T. Berg et al, October, 2021“Incarceration exposure predicted accelerated aging, leaving formerly incarcerated African American individuals biologically older than their calendar age.”
New York State's New Death Penalty: The Death Toll of Mass Incarceration in a Post Execution Era Columbia University Center for Justice, October, 2021“More people have died in NY State custody in the last decade than the total of number of people executed in the 364 years New York State had the death penalty.”
Compassionate Release Data Report: Calendar Years 2020 to 2021 United States Sentencing Commission, September, 2021(This report contains charts and tables describing the 20,565 motions for compassionate release decided upon by the courts in 2020 and the first half of 2021; of those, just over 3,600 or 17.5% were granted.)
Nutrition in Midwestern State Department of Corrections Prisons: A Comparison of Nutritional Offerings Mitchel K. Holliday and Kelli M. Richardson, September, 2021“Sodium was offered in excess across 14 of the 15 menus reviewed. The average daily offering was 3,625 mg or 158% of the recommended level for males and 3,059 mg or 133% of recommended levels for females.”
'I Refuse to Let Them Kill Me': Food, Violence, and the Maryland Correctional Food System The Maryland Food & Prison Abolition Project, September, 2021“Food in prison serves three fundamental functions: as an everyday mechanism of control, dehumanization, and punishment; as a site of exploitation and profit for private food service corporations; and as a form of violence and premature death.”(This report is divided into six parts, all of which are available at this link.)
Violence, Hunger, and Premature Death: How Prison Food in Maryland Became Even Worse During Covid-19 The Maryland Food & Prison Abolition Project, August, 2021“As atrocious as the correctional food systems were prior to 2020, however, the Covid-19 pandemic drastically exacerbated the crisis of prison food prison.”
Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics and the Justice SystemsNational Council for Mental Wellbeing, August, 2021“CCBHCs are required to deliver a comprehensive scope of services to meet clients' full [mental health/substance use] needs while integrating services with primary care.”
Legal Reactivity: Correctional Health Care Certifications as Responses to Litigation Spencer Headworth and Callie Zaborenko, August, 2021“We find that corrections actors tend to adopt [third-party correctional health care] certifications when directly threatened by elevated rates of litigation in their states.”
Access in Brief: Health Care Needs of Adults Involved with the Criminal Justice System Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, August, 2021“When compared to their peers with other forms of coverage, Medicaid beneficiaries under community supervision were more likely to have Hepatitis B or C, chronic bronchitis, or asthma.”
Unsupportive environments and limited policies: Pregnancy, postpartum, and birth during incarceration Prison Policy Initiative, August, 2021“Jails, prisons, and youth facilities have yet to adequately recognize pregnancy and postpartum needs either in policy or in practice.”
National Snapshot: Access to Medications For Opioid Use Disorder in U.S. Jails and Prisons Shelly Weizman, Joanna Perez, Isaac Manoff, Melissa Baney, and Taleed El-Sabawi, July, 2021“In almost every state, some form of MOUD is available in at least one jail or prison, and only a handful of state departments of corrections have policies against offering MOUD in prisons.”
New prisons for old men?Alabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice, July, 2021“The number of young people (age 15 to 30) in Alabama prisons has been cut in half over the last 15 years. Meanwhile, the number of people over age 50 has doubled. People over 50 are the least likely to re-offend and the most expensive to incarcerate...”
Dead Man Waiting: A brief profile of deaths in Texas prisons among people approved for parole release Deitch, Michele, Destiny Moreno, and Alycia Welch, June, 2021“The data reveals that a large number of people die in Texas prisons each year even though the Parole Board had already determined that these individuals were worthy of parole and no longer presented a risk to public safety.”
New data: State prisons are increasingly deadly placesPrison Policy Initiative, June, 2021“New data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that state prisons are seeing alarming rises in suicide, homicide, and drug and alcohol-related deaths.”
Louisiana Deaths Behind Bars: 2015 - 2019 Incarceration Transparency, June, 2021“Prisons and jails should ideally have lower death rates than the general public due to the physical proximity of medical care behind bars, 24-hour staffing and supervision, and reduced probability of certain types of deaths, such as car accidents...”
Bottleneck: The Place of County Jails in California's COVID-19 Correctional Crisis Hadar Aviram, May, 2021“The closure of prisons created a bottleneck in jails, jamming the flow of residents in and out of county facilities. This resulted in serious overcrowding, which was documented in several lawsuits brought on behalf of jail population.”
Adequacy of Healthcare Provided In Louisiana State PrisonsLoyola University, Louisiana State University, VOTE (Voices of the Experienced), May, 2021“The real-world minimum wage equivalent of [medical co-pays] for incarcerated people who earn incentive wages of $.02/per hour is: $1,087.5 for a routine visit, $2,175 for an emergency visit, and $725 for a prescription.”
Mortality in State and Federal Prisons, 2001-2018 - Statistical TablesBureau of Justice Statistics, April, 2021“In 2018, a total of 4,135 state prisoners died in publicly or privately operated prisons, and an additional 378 federal prisoners died in facilities operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).”
The Reincorporation of Prisoners into the Body Politic: Eliminating the Medicaid Inmate Exclusion Policy Mira K. Edmonds, March, 2021“Elimination of the [policy] furthers the bipartisan criminal legal system reform focus on reducing recidivism through effective reentry.”
Hidden Figures: Rating the COVID Data Transparency of Prisons, Jails, and Juvenile Agencies COVID, Corrections, and Oversight Project, March, 2021“Correctional agencies -- especially jails and juvenile agencies -- are failing at publishing adequate data on how COVID is impacting the people who work and live in these institutions.”
Getting under the skin: Physiological stress and witnessing paternal arrest in young children with incarcerated fathers Paywall :(Luke Muentner, Amita Kapoor, Lindsay Weymouth, Julie Poehlmann-Tynan, February, 2021“Results indicate that children had higher cumulative stress hormone concentrations when they witnessed their father's arrest.”
The Consequences Are Black and White: Race and Poor Health Following Incarceration Paywall :(Julie L. Kuper and Jillian J. Turanovic, February, 2021“Findings indicate that Black respondents reported within-person health declines that were more substantial than those of Whites after first incarceration. Additional analyses revealed that these race differences were more pronounced among Black males.”
Mass Incarceration and Children's Health: A State-Level Analysis of Adverse Birth Outcomes and Infant, Child, and Teen Mortality Paywall :(James M Conway, February, 2021“Results indicated that as hypothesized, incarceration rates positively predicted infant mortality, child mortality (for Black children only), preterm births, and low-weight births. Relationships tended to be stronger for Black than for white children.”
Pregnant Women in DOJ Custody: U.S. Marshals Service and Bureau of Prisons Should Better Align Policies with National Guidelines United States Government Accountability Office, January, 2021“By taking steps to more closely align agency standards and policies with national guidance as feasible, USMS and BOP would be better positioned to help ensure the health of pregnant women in their custody.”
The Opioid Epidemic and Homicide in the United StatesPaywall :(Richard Rosenfeld, Joel Wallman, Randolph Roth, January, 2021“Those who happen to live in communities with high opioid use...suffer from the impact of living in communities with high homicide rates.”
Top Trends in State Criminal Justice Reform, 2020Sentencing Project, January, 2021“Incarcerated people are nearly 5X more likely to get COVID-19 compared to the general population. Yet only a handful of states took steps to decarcerate in 2020.”
Health Departments Taking Action on Incarceration: A Framework for Advancing Health Instead of Punishment During COVID-19 Human Impact Partners, January, 2021“We know that there is no way for anyone to be truly safe and healthy inside a jail, prison, or immigration detention center, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Since you asked: Just how overcrowded were prisons before the pandemic and how overcrowded are they now? Prison Policy Initiative, December, 2020“41 states are currently operating at 75% or more of their capacity, with at least 10 of those state prison systems and the federal Bureau of Prisons operating at more than 100%.”
Hotbeds of Infection: How ICE Detention Contributed to the Spread of COVID-19 in the United States Detention Watch Network, December, 2020“ICE's failure to release people from detention during the pandemic added over 245,000 cases to the total U.S. caseload.”
Experience to Action: Reshaping Criminal Justice After COVID-19 Council on Criminal Justice, December, 2020“The size, scale, and scope of the criminal justice system, along with the absence of effective public health coordination, posed a significant obstacle to COVID-19 prevention and control.”
COVID and Corrections: A Profile of COVID Deaths in Custody in Texas COVID, Corrections, and Oversight Project, November, 2020“In one prison, the Duncan Unit, almost 6% of the incarcerated population has died.”
Death Traps An examination of the routine, violent deaths of people in the custody of the State of Alabama Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, November, 2020“2020 is on pace to be one of the most deadly years on record in Alabama prisons, with deaths by homicide between January and July at 10 compared to seven for the same time period in 2019.”
Unmasked: Impacts of Pandemic Policing COVID19 Policing Project, October, 2020“Black people specifically were 4.5 times more likely to be policed and punished for violations of COVID-19 orders than white people.”
Understanding Health Reform As Justice Reform: Medicaid, Care Coordination, and Community Supervision Square One Project, October, 2020“Health system reform built upon the foundation of Medicaid programs can provide many of the health and social supports needed to help people with health problems successfully return and remain in their communities.”
Misunderstood and Mistreated: How Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Experience the Texas Criminal Legal System Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, October, 2020“Approximately 14,700 people with I/DDs are currently incarcerated in Texas.”
The body in isolation: The physical health impacts of incarceration in solitary confinement Justin D. Strong et al, October, 2020“Physical symtpoms people experience in solitary confinement [include]: symptoms associated with deprivation conditions, associated with...limiting access to healthcare, and chronic pain exacerbated by...deprivation conditions and policies.”
Lives on the Line: Women with Incarcerated Loved Ones and the Impact of COVID-19 Behind Bars Essie Justice Group and Color of Change, September, 2020(Only 7% of respondents reported that their incarcerated loved one had adequate access to basic necessities to prevent the spread of COVID-19.)
Youth Justice Under the Coronavirus: Linking Public Health Protections with the Movement for Youth Decarceration Sentencing Project, September, 2020“Despite almost two decades of declines in U.S. youth incarceration, The Sentencing Project reveals more than 1,800 incarcerated youth have tested positive for COVID-19 since March, including more than 300 cases in Florida and Texas.”
Medicare and People Leaving Incarceration: A Primer for California Advocates During the Pandemic Justice in Aging, August, 2020“Though access to Medicare benefits is suspended during incarceration, Medicare enrollment rules remain in place. This affects both individuals who turn 65 while in custody and those who were enrolled in Medicare before incarceration.”
96 Deaths in Detention: A View of COVID-19 in the Federal Bureau of Prisons as Captured in Death Notices World Peace Foundation at the Fletcher School, August, 2020“They reveal substantial shortcomings that are an indictment of the Bureau, the Department of Justice, and the current Administration, and the American public that has proven too willing to write off the lives of millions of incarcerated people.”
Failing Grades: States' Responses to COVID-19 in Jails & Prisons Prison Policy Initiative and ACLU, June, 2020“Despite all of the information, voices calling for action, and the obvious need, state responses ranged from disorganized or ineffective, at best, to callously nonexistent at worst.”
Incarceration Weakens a Community's Immune System: Mass Incarceration and COVID-19 Cases in Milwaukee Preliminary Results Measures for Justice, June, 2020“The number of incarcerations is a strong predictor of the number of COVID-19 cases above and beyond the effect of other predictors in the model, including poverty, unemployment, and population not in the labor force.”
No Excuses: Governors Must Pursue Decarceration Along With Investments in Reentry Services The Justice Collaborative Institute, June, 2020“Meaningful reentry services are available and can be expanded by building upon a large network of existing programs.”
Improving Health Equity for Women Involved in the Criminal Legal SystemGolembeski et al., May, 2020“We delineate reproductive health and motherhood, aging in prison, and reentry as critical areas exemplifying women's complex health-related needs, which may be best addressed via gender-responsive and trauma-informed care.”
Examining the Relationship Between Incarceration and Population Health: The Roles of Region and Urbanicity Paywall :(Robert R. Weidner and Jennifer Schultz, May, 2020“Results indicate that level of incarceration has a detrimental effect on both mortality (i.e., premature death) and morbidity (i.e., self-reported health), and that these effects are more pronounced in rural and Southern counties.”
Since you asked: Is social distancing possible behind bars? Prison Policy Initiative, April, 2020“The short answer is no - social distancing is even harder behind bars than in nursing homes or on cruise ships.”
Hepatitis C Litigation: Healing Inmates as a Public Health Strategy Robert Katz, April, 2020“When an inmate HCV lawsuit brings about the universal treatment of infected inmates, it simultaneously vindicates the inmates' Eighth Amendment rights and maximally advances the public health goal of eradicating HCV. I”
Rikers 6-A Early Release Program: Results After One Month of Operations Center for Court Innovation, April, 2020“After one month of operations, only 7 of the 312 released individuals--2.2 percent--have been re-arrested while in the program. Of these, 4 were for alleged misdemeanor offenses.”
Does distance decrease healthcare options for pregnant, incarcerated people? Mapping the distance between abortion providers and prisons Paywall :(Julia Gips, Kevin J. Psoter, and Carolyn Sufrin, April, 2020“We georeferenced 643 abortion clinics, 75 state prisons and 20 federal prisons. The farthest minimum distance between a state prison and abortion clinic was 383 miles; the shortest was 2.2 miles.”
Post-release mortality among persons hospitalized during their incarcerationPaywall :(David L. Rosen, Andrew L. Kavee, Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein, April, 2020“People hospitalized during incarceration constitute a particularly vulnerable, yet relatively easily identifiable priority population to focus health interventions supporting continuity of care following prison release.”
Physical Health and Disability Among U.S. Adults Recently on Community SupervisionTyler N. A. Winkelman, Michelle S. Phelps, Kelly Lyn Mitchell, Latasha Jennings, and Rebecca J. Shlafer, April, 2020“Compared to the general population, adults recently on community supervision were significantly more likely to report fair or poor health, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hepatitis B or C, one or more chronic conditions, and any disability.”
Protecting Rural Jails from CoronavirusData for Progress and The Justice Collaborative, April, 2020“Our analysis shows that a significant percentage of people being held in jails--12% nationally and over a third in some states--are housed in counties without any ICU beds.”
Mortality in State and Federal Prisons, 2001-2016Bureau of Justice Statistics, February, 2020“The number of deaths in state prisons rose 1.3% from 2015 to 2016 (from 3,682 to 3,729), while the number of deaths in federal prisons fell 15% (from 455 to 388).”
Opioid use disorder incidence and treatment among incarcerated pregnant women in the United States: results from a national surveillance study Paywall :(Sufrin et al., February, 2020“Twenty-six per cent of pregnant women admitted to prisons and 14% to jails had OUD. One-third were managed through withdrawal. The majority who were prescribed MOUD were on methadone (78%, prisons; 81%, jails), not buprenorphine.”
Mortality in Local Jails, 2000-2016Bureau of Justice Statistics, February, 2020“From 2006 to 2016, suicide was the leading single cause of death in local jails each year; it accounted for nearly a third of jail deaths in 2016 (31%).”
Employment and Health Among Recently Incarcerated Men Before and After the Affordable Care Act (2009-2017) Carmen M. Gutierrez and Becky Pettit, January, 2020“After ACA implementation, uninsurance decreased by 26 percentage points among recently incarcerated, unemployed men.”
County Jail Incarceration Rates and County Mortality Rates in the United States, 1987-2016Sandhya Kajeepeta, Caroline G. Rutherford, Katherine M. Keyes, Abdulrahman M. El-Sayed, and Seth J. Prins, January, 2020“Within-county increases in jail incarceration rates are associated with increases in subsequent mortality rates after adjusting for important confounders.”
Pregnancy, Systematic Disregard and Degradation, and Carceral InstitutionsLauren Kuhlik and Carolyn Sufrin, 2020“We describe violations of constitutional and clinical standards of reproductive care behind bars... these reproductive coercions are grounded in historical legacies of slavery and the ongoing reproductive control of black and other marginalized bodies.”
Prisons neglect pregnant women in their healthcare policiesPrison Policy Initiative, December, 2019“Our 50-state survey finds that in spite of national standards, most states lack important policies on prenatal care and nutrition for pregnant women.”
Mass incarceration and public health: the association between black jail incarceration and adverse birth outcomes among black women in Louisiana Lauren Dyer, Rachel Hardeman, Dovile Vilda, Katherine Theall & Maeve Wallace, December, 2019(This analysis of births among black women in Louisiana demonstrated that higher parish-level incarceration prevalence for black individuals were associated with significantly greater risks for preterm birth among parish residents.)
Association of Punitive and Reporting State Policies Related to Substance Use in Pregnancy With Rates of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome Laura J. Faherty, Ashley M. Kranz, Joshua Russell-Fritch, et al., November, 2019(Punitive policies related to substance use in pregnancy were not associated with a reduction in (neonatal abstinence syndrome) NAS rates, and in fact, these policies may have been associated with an increase in rates of NAS.)
(New)The effect of pollution on crime: Evidence from data on particulate matter and ozone Jesse Burkhardt et al, November, 2019“We find a robust positive effect of increased air pollution on violent crimes, and specifically assaults, but no relationship between increases in air pollution and property crimes.”
The 'Olympic Hurdles' of Obtaining Federal Benefits for Inmates with Disabilities: A Study of Two Massachusetts County Jails Paywall :(Shahrzad Sajadi, November, 2019“Complicated application procedures [for governmental assistance] often result in the formerly jailed returning to prior lifestyles and rearrests. This study explores SSI/SSDI systems at two Massachusetts county jails.”
Incarceration Exposure and Maternal Food Insecurity During Pregnancy: Findings from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), 2004-2015 Paywall :(Alexander Testa and Dylan B. Jackson, October, 2019“Exposure to incarceration either personally or vicariously through a partner is associated with a 165% increase in the odds of food insecurity.”
Summit Food Services Provides Inadequate Nutrition at Missouri JailKevin Bliss, Prison Legal News, October, 2019“[An independent registered dietitian's] report stated, "the food is too high in sodium, too high in processed, refined carbohydrates and sugars and too low in fiber."”
Acute Care for Patients Who Are Incarcerated: A Review Paywall :(Lawrence A. Haber, Hans P. Erickson, Sumant R. Ranji, et al, September, 2019“Patients who are incarcerated have a protected right to health care but may experience exceptions to physical comfort, health privacy, and informed decision-making in the acute care setting.”
Drug use in the year after prisonPaywall :(Bruce Western, Jessica T. Simes, August, 2019“Results suggest that in a Medicaid expansion state where health coverage is widely provided to people leaving prison, formerly-incarcerated men and women use medications, not illegal drugs, to address their health needs.”
Preventing Suicide and Self-Harm in Jail: A Sentinel Events Approach Vera Institute of Justice, July, 2019“Research and guidance from experts demonstrate that it is possible to forestall suicides in custody with a comprehensive suicide prevention program.”
The Effect of Public Health Insurance on Criminal RecidivismErkmen Giray Aslim, Murat C. Mungan, Carlos Navarro, and Han Yu, July, 2019“Exploiting administrative data on prison spells, we show that the ACA Medicaid coverage expansion significantly reduces the probability of returning to prison for violent and public order crimes among multi-time reoffenders.”
Not in my Exam Room: How U.S. Immigration Enforcement Is Obstructing Medical Care Physicians for Human Rights, June, 2019“Public health research has documented widening racial and ethnic health disparities as a result of punitive and discriminatory immigration enforcement practices within the militarized border zone.”
Incarceration and opioid withdrawal: The experiences of methadone patients and out-of-treatment heroin users Mitchell et al., June, 2019(Withdrawal is infrequently treated and represents a lost opportunity to engage or retain heroin addicted individuals in treatment and thereby reduce their risk for HIV, for overdose deaths, and for recidivism to drug use and crime.)
Linkages Between Incarceration and HealthMichael Massoglia and Brianna Remster, May, 2019“Incarceration is associated with worse health for all formerly incarcerated persons compared with never incarcerated persons.”
Criminal Justice Contact and Health Service Utilization among Women across Health Care Settings: Analyzing the Role of Arrest Paywall :(Kathryn M. Nowotny, Anastasiia Kuptsevych-Timmer, Carrie Oser, March, 2019“Specifically, women recently arrested are hospitalized and seek care at the emergency department at higher rates than non-recently arrested women and this may be associated with their vulnerable mental and behavioral health status.”
Pregnancy Outcomes in US Prisons, 2016-2017Sufrin et al., March, 2019“Overall, 1396 pregnant women were admitted to prisons; 3.8% of newly admitted women and 0.6% of all women were pregnant in December 2016.”
Persistent and aggressive interactions with the police: potential mental health implications J.L. Hirschtick et al., February, 2019(Men reporting a high number of lifetime police stops have three times greater odds of current PTSD symptoms compared with men who did not report high lifetime police stops, even after adjusting for a range of factors.)
Effect of Continuing Care for People with Cocaine Dependence on Criminal Justice SentencesAlexandra S. Wimberly, Jordan M. Hyatt, & James R. McKay, January, 2019“People with cocaine dependence [in an] intensive outpatient program & a telephone-based continuing care intervention had 54% lower odds of a criminal sentence in the 4 years after enrollment...compared to those [in only an] intensive outpatient program.”
Can There Be Acceptable Prison Health Care? Looking Back on the 1970s Susan M. Reverby, January, 2019“[Formerly incarcerated physician Alan] Berkman's argument--that control rather than care underlies the medical rationale in prison health care--still undermines humane treatment of incarcerated people.”
Right to a Healthy Prison Environment: Health Care in Custody Under the Prism of Torture Juan E. Mendez, January, 2019“A healthy [prison] environment requires structural integrity of prison systems, access to medical care and treatment, health care services, including dental, psychological, and rehabilitative services, and opportunity for prisoners to exercise.”
Associations between sex work laws and sex workers' health: A systematic review and meta-analysis of quantitative and qualitative studies Lucy Platt et al., December, 2018“The public health evidence clearly shows the harms associated with all forms of sex work criminalization, including regulatory systems, which effectively leave the most marginalized, and typically the majority of, sex workers outside of the law.”
Expanding Medicaid Access to Halfway House Residents: Early Qualitative Findings from Connecticut's Experience Urban Institute, December, 2018“Residents no longer have to contend with their fears of returning to the medical unit of a correctional facility for care, and they perceive that Medicaid gives them access to their choice of higher-quality providers.”
A Public Health Strategy for the Opioid CrisisSaloner et al., November, 2018“A tough-on-crime approach has a high likelihood of backfiring: overzealous law enforcement can lead fewer people to come forward when their companions are overdosing, thereby increasing health risks.”
Tombstone Towns and Toxic Prisons: Prison Ecology and the Necessity of an Anti-prison Environmental Movement Paywall :(Elizabeth A. Bradshaw, July, 2018“The failure of the Environmental Protection Agency to consider prisoners within federal environmental justice guidelines facilitates continued harm for this vulnerable population.”
Avoiding the Runaround: The Link Between Cultural Health Capital and Health Management Among Older Prisoners Paywall :(Meghan A. Novisky, July, 2018“Findings show that older prisoners make deliberate choices to protect their health from the constraints and deprivations inherent in their carceral lives.”
The High Costs of Low Risk: The Crisis of America's Aging Prison Population The Osborne Association, May, 2018
Integrated Health Care and Criminal Justice Data Viewing the Intersection of Public Safety, Public Health, and Public Policy Through a New Lens: Lessons from Camden, NJ Harvard Kennedy School, April, 2018(This study suggests that we should shift from reacting to immediate health & crime crises as distinct events to focusing on holistic approaches that result in better individual outcomes, increased public safety, and reduced system costs.)
(New)Crime is in the Air: The Contemporaneous Relationship between Air Pollution and Crime Malvina Bondy, Sefi Roth, and Lutz Sager, April, 2018“The results suggest that exposure to elevated levels of air pollution is associated with increased crime rates...the effect is stronger for types of crime which tend to be less severe and...appears to be unevenly distributed across resident income groups.”
The Detention and Forced Medical Treatment of Pregnant Women: A Human Rights Perspective American Constitution Society, March, 2018(This report argues that laws authorizing the detention and forced medical treatment of pregnant women suspected of drug or alcohol abuse violate human rights standards and are a mistaken legal response to address individual and public health issues.)
Keeping Kids and Parents Together: A Healthier Approach to Sentencing in Louisiana Human Impact Partners, March, 2018“In this report, we evaluate the health and equity impacts of Primary Caretaker legislation in the state of Louisiana. If passed, this legislation would expand the ability to set community-based sentences for parents.”
Jails: Inadvertent Health Care Providers: How county correctional facilities are playing a role in the safety net The Pew Charitable Trusts, January, 2018(This report examines two ways in which jails can deliver healthcare more effectively: by providing high-value care within their walls and by facilitating well-designed health handoffs to community providers at re-entry.)
Injuries associated with bunk beds that occur in jailRandall T. Lodera and Jocelyn Cole Young, October, 2017“Jails account for 29% of all bunk bed injuries resulting in an ED visit in the USA (for people age 10 and over). Addressing this problem will require a multidisciplinary approach involving medicine, material engineering, and criminal justice.”
Prison Health Care: Costs and Quality The Pew Charitable Trust, October, 2017(This report paint a comprehensive picture of how states fund and deliver prison health care, how they compare with one another, and some reasons for differences.)
Forensic Patients in State Psychiatric Hospitals: 1999-2016 National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors, September, 2017“The results from this study indicate that, over a little less than two decades, states have seen an increase in the number of forensic patients who are present in their state hospitals.”
The parallel epidemics of incarceration & HIV in the Deep SouthPrison Policy Initiative, September, 2017“HIV disproportionately impacts communities that are already marginalized by poverty, inadequate resources, discrimination -- and mass incarceration.”
Review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons' Use of Restrictive Housing for Inmates with Mental Illness U.S. Department of Justice, July, 2017“BOP Policies Do Not Adequately Address the Confinement of Inmates with Mental Illness in RHUs, and the BOP Does Not Sufficiently Track or Monitor Such Inmates”
Incarceration shortens life expectancyPrison Policy Initiative, June, 2017“Each year in prison takes 2 years off an individual's life expectancy. With over 2.3 million people locked up, mass incarceration has shortened the overall U.S. life expectancy by 5 years.”
Neither Justice nor Treatment: Drug Courts in the United States Physicians for Human Rights, June, 2017“Overall, PHR found that drug courts largely failed at providing treatment to those who truly needed it, and filled up limited treatment spaces with court-mandated patients who didn't always need the care.”
America's Toxic Prisons: The Environmental Injustices of Mass Incarceration Earth Island Journal and Truthout, June, 2017“The toxic impact of prisons extends far beyond any individual prison, or any specific region in the United States. Mass incarceration in the US impacts the health of prisoners, prison-adjacent communities, and local ecosystems from coast to coast.”
BJS report: Drug abuse and addiction at the root of 21% of crimes Prison Policy Initiative, June, 2017“More than half of the state prison population and two-thirds of the sentenced jail population report drug dependence or abuse, compared to just 5% of the adult general population.”
Using Time to Reduce Crime: Federal Prisoner Survey Results Show Ways to Reduce Recidivism Families Against Mandatory Minimums, May, 2017“An estimated 45 percent of federal prisoners have mental health and behavioral problems...Two-thirds of prisoners who responded to our survey said they had not received mental or behavioral health counseling while in federal prison.”
Criminalizing Pregnancy: Policing Pregnant Women Who Use Drugs in the USA Amnesty International, May, 2017“Often known as "fetal assault", "chemical endangerment" or "personhood" laws, these measures have been used to arrest and prosecute women who experience pregnancy complications and conditions such as drug dependence.”
When did prisons become acceptable mental healthcare facilities?Stanford Law School Three Strikes Project, May, 2017“While the overall state prison population has decreased dramatically, the number of prisoners with mental illness continues to climb and is expected grow in the years ahead.”
A Crisis in Search of Data: The Revolving Door of Serious Mental Illness in Super Utilization Treatment Advocacy Center, April, 2017“National or state-level data that quantify the role and cost of individuals with serious mental illness on law enforcement, corrections, emergency medical or homelessness services do not exist. ”
The steep cost of medical co-pays in prison puts health at riskWendy Sawyer, Prison Policy Initiative, April, 2017“In Michigan, it would take over a week to earn enough for a single $5 co-pay, making it the free world equivalent of over $300. In 13 states co-pays are equivalent to charging minimum wage workers more than $200.”
Food for thought: Prison food is a public health problem Prison Policy Initiative, March, 2017“Administrators looking to save a few cents per meal have traded a healthy food service program for processed foods that make incarcerated people sick.”
The Affordable Care Act, Insurance Coverage, & Health Care Utilization of Previously Incarcerated Young Men: 2008-2015 Tyler N.A. Winkelman, HwaJung Choi, and Matthew M. Davis, March, 2017“Uninsurance declined significantly among previously incarcerated men after the 2014 ACA implementation (-5.9 percentage points), primarily because of an increase in private insurance.”
An Examination of Care Practices of Pregnant Women Incarcerated in Jail Facilities in the United StatesC. M. Kelsey, Nickole Medel, Carson Mullins, Danielle Dallaire, Catherine Forestell, February, 2017(In this first study to examine practices in regional jails nationwide, we found evidence that standards of care guidelines to improve health and well-being of pregnant incarcerated women are not being followed in many facilities.)
A New Normal: Helping the Criminal Justice System Address Opioid Overdoses Vera Institute of Justice, February, 2017“[O]ver the last decade communities and public officials have increasingly called for an approach to drug use that employs harm reduction principles, making the issue a public health concern rather than one to be managed by the criminal justice system.”
Unlocking solitary confinement: Ending Extreme Isolation in Nevada State Prisons The ACLU of Nevada, Solitary Watch, Nevada Disability Advocacy & Law Center, February, 2017“In this report, we found that solitary confinement is, in fact, widely used in the state of Nevada, often for prolonged periods of time, and that many of the people held there are denied basic human needs like daily exercise and sufficient medical care.”
The Death Penalty in Five Florida Counties: Disproportionately Used Against Persons with Significant Mental Impairments Fair Punishment Project, January, 2017“These findings have raised a legitimate question as to whether Florida's capital punishment scheme-even one with a unanimous jury requirement- is capable of limiting application of the death penalty to the most culpable offenders.”
Health Insurance Trends and Access to Behavioral Healthcare Among Justice-Involved Individuals--United States, 2008-2014 Tyler N. A. Winkelman et al., December, 2016(High uninsurance rates, lack of care coordination, and poor access to high quality behavioral health treatment are critical public health issues given the prevalence of mental health and substance use disorders among justice-involved individuals.)
We are not disposable: The Toxic Impacts of Prisons and Jails Californians United for a Responsible Budget, October, 2016“Pollution and environmental degradation created by prisons and jails exacerbate public health risks for not only incarcerated people but also for the local communities where detention facilities are sited.”
Correcting Food Policy in Washington Prisons: How the DOC Makes Healthy Food Choices Impossible for Incarcerated People & What Can Be Done Prison Voice Washington, October, 2016“When the Department of Corrections turned over responsibility for food services to Correctional Industries (CI)...it substituted 95% industrialized, plastic-wrapped, sugar-filled "food products" for locally prepared healthy food.”
Locked Up and Locked Down: Segregation of Inmates with Mental Illness Anna Guy, Amplifying Voices of Inmates with Disabilities Prison Project, September, 2016“[Protection and Advocacy Agencies] have received countless reports of abuse and neglect of inmates in segregation, including prolonged isolation, deplorable conditions, inadequate care, increased self-harm and suicide attempts, and even death.”
Texas Custodial Death Report Police, jail, and prison deaths 2005-2015 Texas Justice Initiative, July, 2016(This report examines who is dying in the Texas criminal justice system and how they are dying.)
National Survey of Prison Health Care: Selected Findings U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, July, 2016“This report presents selected findings on the provision of health care services in U.S. state prisons.”
Justice-Involved Adults With Substance Use Disorders: Coverage Increased But Rates Of Treatment Did Not In 2014 Brendan Saloner, Sachini N. Bandara, Emma E. McGinty, and Colleen L. Barry, June, 2016“In 2014, after ACA implementation, the uninsurance rate among justice-involved individuals with substance use disorders declined from 38% to 28%... [and those] receiving treatment were more likely to have care paid for by Medicaid than in the prior decade”
Breaking Promises: Violations of the Massachusetts Pregnancy Standards & Anti-Shackling Law The Prison Birth Project and Prisoners' Legal Services of Massachusetts, May, 2016“Far too often Massachusetts prisons and jails violate the law in both policy and practice, undermining the public will and subjecting pregnant women to illegal, unsafe, and degrading treatment.”
Assessing Inmate Cause of Death: Deaths in Custody Reporting Program and National Death Index Bureau of Justice Statistics, April, 2016“The U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has collected data annually on inmates who died in state prison and local jail and the circumstances surrounding these deaths since...2000.”
Collateral Damage: The Health Effects of Invasive Police Encounters in New York City Abigail A. Sewell and Kevin A. Jefferson, April, 2016“It shows that, holding constant crime levels, segregation measures, and known sociodemographic correlates of health, community-level Terry stop patterns associate with individual-level illness.”
Paying the Price: Failure to Deliver HIV Services in Lousiana Parish Jails Human Rights Watch, 2016“The state of Louisiana is 'ground zero' for the dual epidemics of HIV and incarceration.”
Breaking the Silence: Civil and Human Rights Violations Resulting from Medical Neglect and Abuse of Women of Color in Los Angeles County Jails Dignity and Power Now, August, 2015“This Report by Dignity and Power Now ("DPN") documents how jail and prison officials violated the rights of seven women of color, and highlights the mental health consequences of the medical neglect and abuse these women suffered.”
Improving the Food Environment in Washington State-Run Correctional Facilities: The Healthy Commissary Project Alyssa Auvinen et al., August, 2015“The Healthy Commissary Project demonstrates the feasibility of partnerships between health departments, corrections, and advocacy organizations to implement effective nutrition interventions in correctional facility commissaries.”
Callous and Cruel: Use of Force against Inmates with Mental Disabilities in US Jails and Prisons Human Rights Watch, May, 2015“This 127-page report details incidents in which correctional staff have deluged prisoners with painful chemical sprays, shocked them with powerful electric stun weapons, and strapped them for days in restraining chairs or beds.”
Arrest-Related Deaths Program: Data Quality Profile Bureau of Justice Statistics, March, 2015“Data from the ARD represent a national accounting of persons who have died during the process of arrest, including homicides by law enforcement personnel and deaths attributed to suicide, intoxication, accidental injury, and natural causes.”
Reproductive Injustice: The State of Reproductive Health Care for Women in New York State Prisons Correctional Association of New York, February, 2015“Overall, however, we found that reproductive health care for women in New York State prisons is woefully substandard, with women routinely facing poor-quality care and assaults on their basic human dignity and reproductive rights.”
"If They Hand You a Paper, You Sign It": A Call to End the Sterilization of Women in Prison Rachel Roth and Sara L. Ainsworth, Hastings Women's Law Journal, January, 2015“[A] number of states allow the sterilization of incarcerated women—flouting important policy norms—and that medical providers and their professional organizations play key roles in sanctioning and carrying out these procedures.”
Reproductive Healthcare Experiences of Incarcerated Women: A Qualitative Study Paywall :(Sarah O'Connor and Rebecca Perkins, 2015“Most women described fragmentation of care with inability to consistently access reproductive and prenatal healthcare services. Frequent transitions between institutions exacerbated problems with access.”
Medical Isolation and Solitary Confinement: Balancing Health and Humanity in US Jails and Prisons During COVID-19 David H. Cloud, Cyrus Ahalt, Dallas Augustine, David Sears MD & Brie Williams, 2015“Any effective and ethical medical isolation and quarantine program in US jails and prisons must be preceded by the immediate release of as many people as possible from jails and prisons to ensure that adequate physical space & medical staff are available.”
Bringing it all back home: Understanding the medical difficulties encountered by newly released prisoners in New Orleans, Louisiana William Lee Vail, Anjali Niyogi, Norris Henderson, and Ashley Wennerstrom, 2015“Most FIPs face significant barriers to access of healthcare, including lack of insurance, funding, knowledge of community services and social support. Importantly, there is an overall distrust of institutions and medical care systems.”
No Escape: Exposure to Toxic Coal Waste at State Correctional Institution Fayette Abolitionist Law Center, September, 2014“More than 81% of responding prisoners (61/75) reported respiratory, throat, and sinus conditions.”
Selected Issues in Mental Health and Corrections: A Collection and Summary of Research Disability Rights Nebraska, 2014“Although only 7% of inmates were in solitary confinement, they accounted for 53% of acts of self-harm.”
Facilitating Access to Health Care Coverage for Juvenile Justice-Involved Youth Models for Change, December, 2013“Youth involved in the juvenile justice system have extensive physical and behavior health needs. The majority have at least one mental health condition and substance abuse is also very common.”
Mortality After Prison Release: Opioid Overdose and Other Causes of Death, Risk Factors, and Time Trends From 1999 to 2009 Ingrid A. Binswanger et al., October, 2013“The leading cause of death in former prisoners was overdose. Pharmaceutical opioids were the most common substances involved in these deaths.”
Managing Prison Health Care SpendingThe Pew Charitable Trust, The MacArthur Foundation, October, 2013“Pew found that prison health care spending in these 44 states totaled $6.5 billion in 2008, out of $36.8 billion in overall institutional correctional expenditures.”
Criminalization of HIV Transmission and Exposure: Research and Policy Agenda Zita Lazzarini et al., August, 2013“More than half the states have HIV-specific criminal laws, whereas all have traditional criminal provisions. Yet criminal laws have not been shown to be effective in reducing rates of HIV infection.”
Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Colorado's continued warehousing of mentally ill prisoners in solitary confinement ACLU of Colorado, July, 2013“As of March 2013, CDOC housed at least 87 seriously mentally ill prisoners in solitary confinement, 54 of whom have been living in isolation for over a year and 14 of whom have been in solitary confinement for more than 4 years.”
A Death Before Dying: Solitary Confinement on Death Row ACLU, July, 2013“93 percent of states lock up their death row prisoners for 22 or more hours per day. Most of these prisoners live under conditions of extreme social isolation and enforced idleness.”
The Federal Bureau of Prisons' Compassionate Release ProgramU.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector, General Evaluation and Inspections Division, April, 2013“Procedures and timeliness standards do not reference the compassionate release program or acknowledge the special circumstances of an inmate requesting compassionate release (particularly those with terminal medical conditions/limited life expectancies).”
Buried Alive: Solitary Confinement in the US Detention System Physicians for Human Rights, April, 2013“...solitary confinement can cause severe and lasting physiological/psychological harm. Moreover, in many cases, the resulting harm rises to the level of torture or cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, in violation of domestic and international law.”
Roe v Wade and the new Jane Crow: Reproductive rights in the age of mass incarceration Lynn Paltrow, January, 2013“Efforts to establish separate legal”
The Answer is No: Too Little Compassionate Release in US Federal Prisons Human Rights Watch and Families Against Mandatory Minimums, November, 2012“To satisfy human rights requirements, prisoners should have access to judicial review or review by a similarly independent, objective tribunal that applies basic due process requirements to decisions regarding the lawfulness of their ongoing detention.”
The Price They Pay: Protecting the Mother-Child Relationship Through the Use of Prison Nurseries and Residential Parenting Programs Anne E. Jbara, October, 2012“Based on the emotional and cognitive benefits for both mothers and babies, the prison nursery program is a worthwhile addition to the prison system in the United States.”
"She Doesn't Deserve to be Treated Like This": Prisons as Sites of Reproductive Injustice Rachel Roth, Center for Women Policy Studies, July, 2012“[T]he well-established nature of women’s rights has not stopped prison and jail personnel from trying to deny women abortion care, or at least obstruct women’s access to abortion.”
At America's Expense The Mass Incarceration of the Elderly ACLU, June, 2012“Based on statistical analyses of available data, this report estimates that releasing an aging prisoner will save states, on average, $66,294 per year per prisoner, including healthcare, other public benefits, parole, and any housing costs or tax revenue.”
Eligibility and Capacity Impact Use of Flexibilities to Reduce Inmates' Time Government Accountability Office, February, 2012“Increased funding would have reduced the Residential Drug Abuse Treatment Program wait lists and enabled eligible inmates to enter the program early enough to earn their maximum allowable sentence reductions.”
Out and Down: The Effects of Incarceration on Psychiatric Disorders and Disability Jason Schnittker, Michael Massoglia, and Christopher Uggen, February, 2011“Incarceration has a robust relationship with subsequent mood disorders, related to feeling”
Criminal Justice Interventions for Offenders With Mental Illness Evaluation of Mental Health Courts in Bronx and Brooklyn, New York Urban Institute, 2011“Findings from the impact analysis indicate that mental health court participants are significantly less likely to recidivate, as compared to similar offenders with mental illness who experience business-as-usual court processing...”
Ending and Defending Against HIV Criminalization: State and Federal Laws and Prosecutions The Center for HIV Law and Policy, November, 2010“Thirty-two states and two U.S. territories have HIV-specific criminal statutes and thirty-six states have reported proceedings in which HIV-positive people have been arrested and/or prosecuted for consensual sex, biting, and spitting.”
Mothers Behind Bars: A state-by-state report card and analysis of federal policies on conditions of confinement for pregnant/parenting women The Rebecca Project for Human Rights and The National Women's Law Center, October, 2010“Pregnant women, incarcerated women and their children are subject to federal and state correctional policies that fail to recognize their distinct needs or honor their families.”
A Study of Women Prisoners' Use of Co-Payments for Health CareAnastasia A. Fisher & Diane C. Hatton, May, 2010“Co-payments contributed to delays in treatment, avoidance of health care professionals, unnecessary suffering, and poor health outcomes [among incarcerated women].”
A randomized clinical trial of methadone maintenance for prisoners: Findings at 6 months post-release Michael S. Gordon et al., August, 2008“This study suggests that methadone maintenance treatment, provided to prisoners with histories of heroin addiction, may be an effective intervention for interrupting the cycle of relapse often experienced by individuals with heroin addiction histories.”
The Health and Health Care of US Prisoners: Results of a Nationwide Survey Andrew P. Wilper et al, August, 2008“Among [incarcerated people] with a persistent medical problem, 13.9% of [people in federal prison], 20.1% of [people in state prison], and 68.4% of [people in jail] had received no medical examination since incarceration.”
A Study of Methadone Maintenance For Male Prisoners: 3-Month Postrelease Outcomes Timothy W. Kinlock et al., July, 2008“Participants who received prison-initiated maintenance treatment were significantly more likely to enter community-based treatment than were inmates who received either information on how to access drug abuse treatment after release or counseling only”
HIV in Prisons, 2006Bureau of Justice Statistics, April, 2008“The overall rate of estimated confirmed AIDS among the prison population (0.46%) was more than 2½ times the rate in the U.S. general population (0.17%).”
Medical Problems of PrisonersBureau of Justice Statistics, April, 2008“An estimated 44% of state inmates and 39% of federal inmates reported a current medical problem other than a cold or virus.”
Health and Prisoner Reentry: How Physical, Mental, and Substance Abuse Conditions Shape the Process of Reintegration Urban Institute, February, 2008“Nearly all returning prisoners—8 in 10 men and 9 in 10 women—had chronic health conditions requiring treatment or management.”
Expert Report by Dr. Noel on Medical Care at Ely State PrisonAmerican Civil Liberties Union, December, 2007“[T]he medical care provided at Ely State Prison amounts to the grossest possible medical malpractice, and the most shocking and callous disregard for human life and human suffering, that I have ever encountered in the medical profession...”
HIV in Prisons, 2005Bureau of Justice Statistics, September, 2007“There were 22,480 state and federal inmates who were HIV infected or had confirmed AIDS on Dec. 31, 2005, which was a decrease from 22,936 at the end of 2004... [t]he 2005 decline was the sixth consecutive year the number has fallen.”
Release from Prison -- A High Risk of Death for Former InmatesIngrid A. Binswanger et al., January, 2007“During the first 2 weeks after release from the Washington State Department of Corrections, the risk of death among former inmates was 12.7 times that among Washington State residents of the same age, sex, and race.”
Medical Causes of Death in State Prisons, 2001-2004Bureau of Justice Statistics, January, 2007“Overall, 89 percent of all state prisoner deaths were attributed to medical conditions and 8 percent were due to suicide or homicide.”
Release from Prison A High Risk of Death for Former Inmates New England Journal of Medicine, January, 2007“The mortality rate among former inmates was 3.5 times (95% CI, 3.2 to 3.8) that among state residents of the same age, sex, and race. The attributable-risk percentage was 71%, amounting to 316 excess deaths.”
HIV in Prisons, 2004Bureau of Justice Statistics, November, 2006“The overall rate of confirmed AIDS among the prison population (0.50%) was more than 3 times the rate in the U.S. general population (0.15%).”(Although the percentage of prisoners with HIV has decresed, problems remain.)
Medical Problems of Jail InmatesBureau of Justice Statistics, November, 2006“More than a third of jail inmates reported having a current medical problem.”
Incarceration as Forced Migration: Effects on Selected Community Health Outcomes James C. Thomas and Elizabeth Torrone, October, 2006“High rates of incarceration can have the unintended consequence of destabilizing communities and contributing to adverse health outcomes.”
Mental Health Problems of Prison and Jail InmatesBureau of Justice Statistics, September, 2006“Female inmates had higher rates of mental health problems than male inmates (State prisons: 73% of females and 55% of males; Federal prisons: 61% of females and 44% of males; local jails: 75% of females and 63% of males).”
The Spiral of Risk: Health Care Provision to Incarcerated Women National Council on Crime and Delinquency, March, 2006“Female offenders commonly face a wide range of serious health problems.... Their health problems typically predate their involvement in the justice system, are often exacerbated while they are imprisoned, and continue to deteriorate after release.”
Treatment Instead of Prisons: A Roadmap for Sentencing and Correctional Policy in Wisconsin Justice Strategies, January, 2006“Absent a major investment of tax dollars in treatment services, however, we found that the state is likely to face mounting prison populations pressures in coming years due to growth in nonviolent admissions and revocations of post-release supervision.”
Ethical Considerations for Research Involving PrisonersInstitute of Medicine of the National Academies, Board on Health Sciences Policy, 2006(A review of current research practices regarding prison subjects with recommendations.)
Black Male Incarceration Rates and the Relatively High Rate of AIDS Infection Among African-American Women and Men Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley, July, 2005“Our results reveal that the higher incarceration rates among black males over this period explain a substantial share of the racial disparity in AIDS infection between black women and women of other racial and ethnic groups.”
Prison Needle Exchange: Lessons from a Comprehensive Review of International Evidence and Experience Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, October, 2004
Georgia's Aging Inmate PopulationGeorgia Department of Corrections, June, 2004“Georgia, with a prison population in excess of 47,000 inmates has the sixth largest prison system in the nation. At the end of FY 2002 4,025 inmates, or nearly one in ten were 50 or older.”
Correctional Health: The Missing Key to Improving the Public's Health and Safety Massachusetts Public Health Association, October, 2003
"Do no harm" or "Do no expense"?: Ohio's prisoners are dying from inadequate medical care Prison Policy Initiative, October, 2003“Ohio Department of Corrections' health care budget cuts and poor oversight is compromising the quality of care.”
Ill-Equipped: U.S. Prisons and Offenders with Mental Illness Human Rights Watch, October, 2003
Drug Treatment in the Criminal Justice System The Current State of Knowledge Urban Institute, January, 2003“Prisoners are not getting the drug treatment programs that would reduce their drug abuse and criminal behavior.”
Treatment of Incarcerated Women With Substance Abuse and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS), July, 2002
Consensus Project ReportCriminal Justice / Mental Health Consensus Project, June, 2002(project coordinated by the Council of State Governments (CSG))
The War on Drugs and the War on Abortion: Some Initial Thoughts on the Connections, Intersections, and the Effects Lynn Paltrow, May, 2002(By recognizing the similarity between reproductive rights and the drug war there is an opportunity for a deeper understanding of each issue and a basis for developing analysis and action that can counteract the forces of punishment and prohibition.)
Mental Health Treatment in State PrisonsBureau of Justice Statistics, July, 2001(None of the prison systems have any idea how many mentally ill prisoners they have. Using the BJS reports for anything other than whether or not prisoners identified as mentally ill are actually receiving services would be a mistake.)
Medical Problems of Inmates, 1997Bureau of Justice Statistics, January, 2001“Presents survey data on offenders who were in prison who reported a medical problem since admission or a physical impairment or mental condition”
Federal Prisons: Responses to Questions Related to Containing Health Care Costs for an Increasing Inmate Population General Accounting Office, June, 2000
Prisons and Jails: Hospitals of Last Resort: The Need for Diversion and Discharge Planning for Incarcerated People with Mental Illness in New York Correctional Association of New York and the Urban Justice Center, 1999
Report on the Psychiatric Management of John Salvi in Massachusetts Department of Correction Facilities 1995-1996 University of Massachusetts Medical Center Department of Psychiatry, January, 1997“...in our opinion, the number of full-time equivalent psychiatrists within the DOC is far too low to meet the psychiatric needs of the inmate population.”
Prison Suicide: An Overview and Guide to Prevention U.S. Department of Justice, June, 1995“During the past 10 years, the rate of suicide in prisons throughout the country was 20.6 deaths per 100,000 inmates. States with small prison populations appear to have exceedingly high rates of suicide -- often more than 2.5 times the national average.”
