Health Affairs February 20, 2020
Criminal justice reform is a major public policy issue for this generation. The United States has the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world, with nearly 2.3 million people currently incarcerated.
Criminal justice reform is also an urgent health equity issue. Incarcerated individuals have worse health outcomes than the general population before, during, and after incarceration. They are more likely than the general population to have chronic diseases (including high blood pressure and diabetes) and infectious diseases (including hepatitis, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis). Substance abuse and mental illness are especially prevalent, due both to the War on Drugs—a more aggressive approach to drug enforcement policy—and deinstitutionalization, a movement in the mid-twentieth century that was meant to move people with...
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