How women navigate disadvantage: Jails, neighborhoods, and health risk

The objective of this presentation is to describe how women navigate movement between jails and urban communities with a focus on health risk as an outcome. Drawing on several sources of data collected in Kansas City -- a survey with 290 women incarcerated in city jails, focus groups with 45 jailed women, and semi-structured interviews with a sample of 28 women recently released from jail -- we use a mixed-methods approach to illustrating the individual and neighborhood-level barriers to health, as well as the concerns and strategies women use to negotiate stigma, disadvantage, and criminal justice involvement when addressing their health needs. The presentation accomplishes its objective by presenting results from four completed studies of neighborhood disadvantage, incarceration, drug dependence, and reproductive health. By providing an overview of these projects, we hope to illustrate the ‘healthography’ that women leaving jails navigate as they return home.