Research on access to healthcare, chronic and infectious disease, mortality, and more
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.
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.”
Medicaid Expansion and Mortality Among Persons Who Were Formerly IncarceratedPasangi S. Perera et al, September, 2024“After Medicaid expansion, White individuals who were formerly incarcerated in RI experienced a sustained decrease of 388 deaths per 100,000 person-years per year...3 times that experienced by all racially minoritized individuals.”
(New)The State of Solitary: Restrictive Housing and Treatment of Incarcerated Delawareans with Mental Illness Delaware Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. Disabilities Law Program, September, 2024“Two of the correctional facilities monitored had a separate Residential Treatment Unit (RTU) with mental health staff, services, and programming for individuals requiring that level of care for a mental health condition, while two did not.”
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.”
(New)Deaths by Suicide An Investigation of the Deaths of Three Individuals in Nebraska Department of Correctional Services Custody Office of Inspector General of the Nebraska Correctional System, August, 2024“The OIG death investigations focus on the circumstances of the death ...and events or actions of NDCS leading up to the death, as well as the NDCS response to the death, and to make recommendations for improvement.”
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.”
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.”
(New)Healthcare in Carceral Settings: Alternatives for the Medically Vulnerable Incarcerated Person Sydney Manning, June, 2024“Requesting medication or an assistive device that has not been pre-approved requires an approval process wherein health professionals consider not only the benefit to the patient but factors such as facility security and cost.”
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.”
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.”
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”
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.”
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...”
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.”
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).”
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.”
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.)
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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 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.”
In-Custody Deaths in Ten Maryland Detention Centers, 2008-2019Carmen Johnson et al and the UCLA BioCritical Studies Lab, August, 2023“The detention centers with the most instances of in-custody death in our study sample are situated in jurisdictions with both high rates of poverty and large numbers of Black residents.”
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.”
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.”
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).”
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.”
Report: Los Angeles County Jail Deaths 2009Alexander Li, Grace Sosa, Terence Keel, UCLA BioCritical Studies Lab, February, 2023“This report provides summary data on deaths reported by [LA Sheriff's Department] in Los Angeles County Jails, as well as trends in demographic information and death determinations, during the year 2009, one of the most lethal years on record.”
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....”
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.”
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.”
Natural Causes? 58 Autopsies Prove Otherwise Evaluating the Autopsies of 58 Deaths in Los Angeles County Jails Nicholas Shapiro, Terence Keel, UCLA Carceral Ecologies Lab, BioCritical Studies Lab, June, 2022“Our study shows that young Black and Latinx men are not dying merely from”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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...”
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.”
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.”
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).”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.)
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.)
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.)
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.)
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.”
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.)
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.)
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”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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%).”
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.”
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.”
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
"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.”
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.”
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
Federal Prisons: Containing Health Care Costs for an Increasing Inmate Population General Accounting Office, April, 2000
