Public Health Behind Bars

Projecting correctional facility-based health care into the community arena, Public Health Behind Bars: From Prisons to Communities examines the burden of illness in the growing prison population, and analyzes the considerable impact on public health as prisoners are released. More than forty practitioners, researchers, and scholars in correctional health, mental health, law, and public policy make a timely case for correctional health care that is humane for those incarcerated and beneficial to the communities they reenter. These authors offer affirmative recommendations toward that evolutionary step.

Chapter authors identify the most compelling health problems behind bars (including communicable disease, mental illness, addiction, and suicide), pinpoint systemic barriers to care, and explain how correctional medicine can shift from emergency or crisis care to primary care and prevention. In addition, strategies are outlined that link community health resources to correctional facilities so that prisoners can transition to the community without unnecessarily taxing public resources or falling through the cracks. Between the authors’ research findings and practical suggestions, readers will find realistic answers to these and similar questions:

• Can transmission of HIV, tuberculosis, and other communicable diseases be reduced and prevented among prisoners?
• How can correctional facilities treat addiction more effectively?
• What can be done to improve diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders?
• Can correctional care benefit from quality management and performance measurement?
• How can care be coordinated between correctional and community health care providers?
• What are the health risks to communities if action is not taken?

Public Health Behind Bars: From Prisons to Communities is a challenge of immediate interest to readers in correctional health and medicine, public and community health, health care administration and policy, and civil rights.

• Correctional health care
• Crime
• HIV prevention
• Health promotion
• International Public Health
• Law and health
• Prevention
• Prevention and Control
• Prisoner health
• Prisons and health
• Public Health
• Public policy
• Secondary prevention
• Tertiary prevention
• screening

From the reviews:

"A comprehensive, provocative volume of articles edited by Robert Greifinger that explores correctional health interventions and their impact on greater public health. … a multi-faceted, invaluable resource that should be required reading for anyone interested in correctional health. … This book is suitable for a wide audience and is an indispensable reference for correctional health students, professionals, and scholars; criminal justice experts; and particularly for new practitioners in the field of correctional health." (Amy Nunn and Ank Nijhawan, Journal of Urban Health, Vol. 85 (3), 2008)

"Public Health Behind Bars is a compilation of cross-disciplinary essays and reviews that illuminate the complexities of providing compassionate and competent medical care to inmates while maximizing public health. … is more than a public health or medical textbook and will be compelling to a broad audience. … The broad appeal of this book is greater because the contributors do not avoid controversial stances. … Overall, I was struck by the authors’ compassion for inmates throughout this book." (Ingrid A. Binswanger, New England Journal of Medicine, May, 2008)

"This edited book focuses on medical, legal, and public health issues in the American correctional system. … The book is intended for public policy practitioners, correctional administrators, correctional healthcare providers, inmate and patient advocates, lawyers, educators, students, public health practitioners, researchers, and community healthcare providers. … an excellent sourcebook for a graduate seminar in public health and corrections. … many opportunities for a professor to add thoughtful analysis, the book could easily be adopted in schools of public health or departments of criminal justice." (Paul J Goldstein, Doody’s Review Service, September, 2008)

 "This collection of 30 chapters provides a comprehnsive examination of the interface between incarceration and public health. ... Greifinger has succeeded in bringing together a collection of essays that constitute a thorough examination of issues and programs generated by a court-prompted focus on the health of prison populations in the United States. Material from this book should be readily integrated into graduate programs in public health. Practitioners should find this text both insightful and pragmatic." (Keith J. Mueller, PhD, JAMA, November 5, 2008-Vol300, No. 17)

• John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, Dobbs Ferry, USA

  Robert B. Greifinger

Robert B. Greifinger, M.D., is a medical management consultant. He has extensive experience in the development and management of complex community and institutional health care programs. His current clients include managed care organizations and state and local correctional systems. Greifinger frequently serves as a court-appointed expert to report on ailing correctional health systems. He is also an adjunct Professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Previously, he was the Chief Medical Officer for the New York State of Correctional Services, which was responsible for the health care of 68,000 inmates.

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