About the Report of the Re-Entry Council

Policy Statement 10, Research Highlight 4

Tackling the health care needs of returning inmates may positively affect the public health of the communities to which they return.

Prisoners account for a substantial share of the total population infected with HIV, AIDS, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and tuberculosis. For example, in 1997, individuals released from prison or jail accounted for nearly one-quarter of all people living with HIV or AIDS, almost one-third of people diagnosed with hepatitis C, and more than one-third of those diagnosed with tuberculosis. [1]   Virtually all people in prison or jail are at high risk for many chronic and communicable diseases. Individuals in this population, when not incarcerated, are often among the hardest for the health system to identify in part because the criminal justice system and health system rarely collaborate to discuss their shared population. Accordingly, periods of incarceration provide what the National Commission on Correctional Health Care describes as a "window of opportunity" for a variety of preventive, diagnostic, and treatment interventions that stand to benefit not only inmates, but also their families, partners, friends, and communities. [2]  , [3]  

  1. Theodore M. Hammett, Cheryl Roberts, and Sofia Kennedy, "Health-Related Issues in Prisoner Reentry," Crime & Delinquency 47, no. 3 (2002): 390-409. back
  2. National Commission on Correctional Health Care, The Health Status of Soon-To-Be-Released Prisoners A Report to Congress, vol. 1 (Chicago: National Commission on Correctional Health Care, 2002). back
  3. Theodore M. Hammett, Cheryl Roberts, and Sofia Kennedy, "Health-Related Issues in Prisoner Reentry" Crime & Delinquency 47, no.3 (2002): 390-409.; Cheryl Roberts, Sofia Kennedy, and Theodore M. Hammett, "Linkages Between In-Prison and Community-Based Health Services" (paper presented at the Urban Institute's Re-Entry Roundtable, New York, Dec. 11-13, 2002). back
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