Where are the Men: The Impact of Incarceration and Reentry on African American Men and Their Children and Families Publication Date: 08/2006 By the End of June 2005, there were over 2.1 million people incarcerated in jails and prisons in the United States-equivalent to one in every 135 U.S. residents (Beck and Harrison, 2006). The mass incarceration of individuals in the U.S. has had a detrimental impact on people of color, particularly African-American men.
Developing and Action Agenda for Prisoners Reentering the Community Publication Date: 8/2006 Each year, more than 650,000 people cross the boundary between community and corrections when they are released from the nation’s jails and prisons. A working group convened by Community Voices and the National Academy for State Health Policy in Spring 2006 focused on the narrow pathway between prison cell and community – and the actions and investments that make or break the process dubbed “reentry.”
Examining the Needs of the Incarcerated, Soon-to-be-Released and Ex-offenders Publication Date: 10/2006 Community Voices convened a meeting of thirty-three key community stakeholders in Georgia. The goal was to identify challenges to reentry pathways and to foster reentry projects in the state of Georgia.
Prison Health and The Health of the Public: The Ties that Bind Publication Date: 01/2007 Untreated or overlooked illnesses in a prison population can expose whole communities to the risk of infection from a contagious disease. With nearly 2.2 million men and women incarcerated in prisons and jails in the United States, many suffer with HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, tuberculosis, diabetes, as well as chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and asthma. In order to address the health care concerns of the general population, it is first necessary to realize that there is a direct tie between prison health and the health of the public.
Felony Convictions and Access to Health Care: Equal Opportunity for Life and Liberty? Publication Date: 03/2007 The deliberate disenfranchisement of felons and ex-felons is America’s dirty little secret. Disenfranchisement is an express, direct attack on the democratic process, one that is traditionally motivated by racism and which currently disproportionately impacts African Americans. The number of citizens deliberately disenfranchised is huge and rapidly expanding – 4.7 million Americans were ineligible to vote in 2000; by 2004 that number had risen to 5.3 million and is still rising.
Silent Victims: The Impact of Parental Incarceration on Children Publication Date: 02/2008 According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, of the 72 million children in the United States in 1999, about 2% had a parent in State or Federal prison. During that same year, there were over 700,000 parents incarcerated in State and Federal prisons. Black children were “nearly nine times more likely to have a parent in prison than white children and Hispanic children were 3 times as likely as while children.”
Failing Health: The Crisis of Health Care for Indigent Offenders Publication Date: 06/2007 In 2004, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services(CMS), issued a letter “encouraging states to “suspend” and not “terminate” Medicaid benefits while a person is in a public institution or Institute for Mental Disease (IMD)”citing that “persons released from institutions are at risk of homelessness; thus, access to mainstream services upon release is important in establishing a continuum of care and ongoing support that may reduce the demand for costly and inappropriate services later.
2008 Community Voices Freedom’s Voice Conference Proceedings Publication Date: 2008 The 2008 conferences focused on addressing health disparities and inequities as a social justice issue for men, women, and their families.
2009 Community Voices Freedom’s Voice Conference Proceedings Publication Date: 2009 The 2009 Community Voices Freedom’s Voice conference focused on “Strengthening Families During Incarceration and Homecoming,” and brought together many of the local, state, and national level experts and advocates working to reform failed policies and improve services and outcomes for all those impacted by the criminal justice system.
State-funded Rehabilitation Services for the Incarcerated Publication Date: n/a An overwhelming majority in both Washington, DC and statewide in Georgia would support a policy to make state-funded rehabilitation services available to incarcerated people both while they are in prison and after they have been released, a pair of polls conducted by Zogby International on behalf of Community Voices at Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) shows