Proceedings from the forum highlighting correctional health research in the October issue of the American Journal of Public Health now available.  You can also view a webcast of the forum and download a transcript through kaisernetwork.org.

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U.S. Can Save $3 Billion a Year on Prison Health, Satcher Says

 

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28, 2005—The U.S. could conservatively save $3 billion a year by improving its ineffective and at times inhumane prison health system, David Satcher, MD, PhD, Interim President of the Morehouse School of Medicine and 16th U.S. Surgeon General said today at the release of the October 2005 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.  The issue of the Journal focuses on prison health, and its release here is co-sponsored by the Community Voices Initiative of the National Center for Primary Care, Morehouse School of Medicine, and the American Public Health Association.

 

“The results released in today’s American Journal of Public Health should lead any medical professional to realize a prescription for change needs to be written.  For the American taxpayer, its time to ask for increased accountability and expect a better return on a $60 billion investment,” said Satcher. The $3 billion a year savings in prison health could be achieved by a five percent reduction in persons incarcerated due to health-related reasons.

 

Satcher was joined at this event by The Honorable Judge Greg Mathis of Michigan’s 36th District Court and host of the nationally syndicated television court show, Judge Mathis; Georges C. Benjamin, M.D., FACP, Executive Director of the American Public Health Association; Nicholas Freudenberg, DrPH, Distinguished Professor of Urban Public Health at Hunter College, City University of New York; Marguerite Johnson, Vice President for Programs of the Health Division of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation; Steven Leifman, JD, Associate Administrative Judge in the Miami-Dade County Court; Henrie M. Treadwell, Ph.D., Senior Social Scientist and Associate Director of Development at the National Center for Primary Care, Morehouse School of Medicine; and Lester N. Wright, MD, MPH, Deputy Commissioner/Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Corrections Services, New York.

 

“Prison bars are not a barrier against disease.  Health problems don’t disappear when someone is sent to jail, and they don’t stay in jail once someone is released,” said Dr. Benjamin. “Of the over 2 million prisoners incarcerated last year, more than half a million will be released back into our communities this year. Many will leave jail with compromised health and most with no access to comprehensive health care services.”

 

The overwhelming majority of these inmates are men, particularly men of color.  “America’s prisons are ground zero for racial and health disparities,” Dr. Satcher said.  

 

The Journal contains 15 articles on prison health.  Findings include:

• The prevalence of infectious disease is on average four to 10 times greater among prisoners than among the rest of the U.S. population, and the prevalence of chronic disease is even greater.

• One in six people in the criminal justice system lives with a mental illness.

• The rapid spread of tuberculosis and HIV infection among inmates in the 1990s coincided with patterns of mass incarceration.

• No federal Medicaid funds can be used to pay for health care services to “inmates of a public institution.”

 

Community Voices of the National Center for Primary Care at the Morehouse School of Medicine is a W.K. Kellogg Foundation initiative working to make health care available to all, by helping ensure the survival of safety-net providers and strengthening community support services. For more information, please visit www.communityvoices.org.

 

The American Public Health Association, publisher of the American Journal of Public Health, is the oldest, largest and most diverse organization of public health professionals in the world. The association works to protect all Americans and their communities from preventable, serious health threats. More information is available at www.apha.org.