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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Jean J. E. Bonhomme, MD, MPH¹, Torrance Stephens, PhD², and Ronald L. Braithwaite, PhD². (1) National Black Men's Health Network, 250 Georgia Avenue, Suite 321, Atlanta, GA 30312, (404) 524-7237, jbonhom@bellsouth.net, (2) Community Health and Preventive Medicine, Morehouse School of Medicine, 720 Westview Drive, Atlanta, GA 30311

For many years, social scientists have focused attention on the negative impact of releasing inmates into the same environments that led to their initial incarceration. Lack of job opportunities, substandard housing, underemployment, racism, lack of marketable job skills, classism, stigmatization, and lack of discharge planning contribute to a vicious cycle that relegates many past offenders to a permanently marginalized status.

High rates of incarceration among African-Americans may have intergenerational consequences. Children of incarcerated parents are at increased risk of future delinquency/criminality. African-American males have a 29% lifetime chance of serving at least one year in prison, six times higher than white males. This has major implications for family formation and stability. Only 15% of married couples are able to endure a period of incarceration of one partner. Imbalance of marriageable African-American males to females predicts family disruption and increased crime.

Nearly two-thirds of released prisoners will be rearrested for a serious offense within three years. The costs of this cycle of incarceration and reentry are high. National expenditures on corrections reached $44 billion in 1997 Prison inmates may be nearly six times more likely than the general population to have AIDS. Prisoner reentry carries the potential for profound collateral consequences, including public health risks, crime, disenfranchisement, homelessness, and weakened family/community ties.

The authors hold that greater attention to prisoner re-integration is warranted. Meeting released prisoners at the gates with extensive pre-release planning, referral services, job training, housing, and health care access will promote stabilization and successful re-integration into community life.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in the session will be able to

• Identify at least three major barriers to successful readjustment to life in society for African-Americans after incarceration;
• Recognize the impact of the high rates of incarceration of African-Americans on the African-American family and community;
• Identify at least three approaches that could potentially facilitate the successful readjustment of released prisoners.

Keywords: African American, Incarceration

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation