correctional healthcare conference
web admin: 650-479-4449

The Other Prison Health Crisis

Hepatitis C is common behind bars, but sick prisoners aren’t getting treatment.

Safe Alternatives to Segregation (SAS) initiative

VERA Selects five Corrections Departments for initiative aimed at reducing the use of solitary confinement.

 Mar 24 2015

NEW YORK – The Vera Institute of Justice announced today that it has selected five state and local corrections departments to participate in its Safe Alternatives to Segregation (SAS) initiative aimed at reducing their use of solitary confinement and other forms of segregated prisoner housing. The state corrections departments in Nebraska, Oregon, and North Carolina, and local departments in New York City and Middlesex County, New Jersey were chosen after a competitive bidding process.

The purpose of segregated housing is to isolate inmates deemed threats to the safety and security of facilities. But over the past three decades, departments of corrections have increasingly used it to punish disruptive but nonviolent behavior, protect vulnerable inmates, or temporarily house inmates awaiting the completion of a facility transfer. Individuals are held in segregation for days, years, and in some instances, decades.

A growing body of evidence suggests that segregation is counterproductive to facility and public safety. According to

My Night in Solitary

NY Times Op Ed piece, My Night in Solitary, click the inmate to read.

one report, nearly every study of segregation’s effects conducted over the past 150 years has concluded that subjecting an individual to more than 10 days of involuntary segregation negatively impacts his or her emotional, cognitive, social, and physical well-being. Segregation is also expensive, as isolated housing can cost tens of thousands of dollars more per inmate than general population housing. READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE

New Papers Highlight ACA’s Impacts on Correctional Health Care System

Letter from the president of COCHScochs

Dear Colleague,

With the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010, Community Oriented Correctional Health Services (COCHS) recognized the potentially huge implications of parity and Medicaid expansion for the criminal justice system. We have published several papers on these issues, all of which are available on our website at: www.cochs.org.

But the ACA is having other, less widely recognized impacts as well, most notably by driving the creation of consumer-driven health care systems within correctional settings, as well as the establishment of payment arrangements based on value instead of volume.

Two new papers from COCHS address these developments in depth:

I think you will find both these reports very informative. I encourage you to read them and share them with your colleagues.

Best wishes,

Steven Rosenberg

President, COCHS

Health Coverage in Jails: a 2 part podcast series

From the National Association of Counties (NACo)

Health Coverage in Jails: Why Should it Matter to Counties?

health-and-jails_3_smThis two-part podcast will explore the importance of connecting county jail inmates with health insurance and strategies counties can use to connect individuals with care as they leave the jail and save money.

In 2012, county and other local jails admitted 11.6 million people, costing more than $70.2 billion in county justice and public safety services. Justice programs are among the largest cost centers for county governments, as they operate 3,105 county police and sheriff departments at $30.2 billion each year and spend more than $23.3 billion on correctional facilities annually. In jails across the country, inmate health care costs range from 9 percent to 30 percent of corrections spending.

Health Coverage in Jails: Provisions that Can Save Counties Money

health-and-jails_2_sm

 

2014 Year in Medicine

Slideshow of 2014's Medical highlights

Click the pic to view a slideshow of the top 2014 Medical Highlights It’s quick, informative and very interesting~

 

Pew: State Inmate Population Projected to Rise

Prison-Sign<Read the new Pew Report here>

Odds of Ending Mass Incarceration ‘Don’t Look Good’

Crime Report: The message of California’s Prop 47

 

1 2 3 7