Impact of incarceration and reentry: Strategies to provide health services to those that return home

Nearly 2.2 million men and women are incarcerated in prisons and jails in the United States and a growing body of evidence points to levels of ill health and inadequate treatment while incarcerated. Many inmates are African American men and women. It is estimated that over 650,000 individuals will be released each year from correctional institutions and return to their communities. Many of the individuals will return ill-prepared to re-integrate back into their communities. Many of these individuals suffer from chronic diseases, substance abuse, mental illness, HIV/AIDS, and infectious diseases. Once released, many former prisoners have no access to health insurance and, thus, no entrée to health services. Additionally, ex-offenders often return to the communities with the fewest resources – cities, towns, and neighborhoods that are already poor, overburdened, and with limited health resources. The effect is to exacerbate health disparities already present.

Many more are denied the opportunity to successfully reintegrate into society due to restrictive laws and policies impacting housing, medical care, employment, education and the right to vote. As this population returns home, strategies must be developed to assist in their reintegration and collaborations between criminal justice entities and community organizations must be forged.

Community Voices at Morehouse School of Medicine is actively involved in local and state dialogue about the distribution of resources, ensuring that underserved communities have a voice in policy dialogues through eight learning laboratories. The purpose of this panel is to discuss the issues surrounding prisoner health and reentry by convening project directors from some of our learning laboratories to discuss the innovative strategies developed to help successfully reintegrate former inmates into their communities and to provide them with needed health services. In addition, policy recommendations will be discussed to eliminate the barriers that former inmates face when they return home.