The Care Could Kill Ya: The Need For Transparent Inquiries Into Prisoners’ Health Care Needs

• In Event: Barriers to Health Care Access in Prisons

Abstract

Although prisoners have a constitutional right to health care, periodic scandals indicate that prisoners' access to health care and the quality of that care are often deficient. Chronic illnesses go untreated, emergencies are ignored, and patients with serious mental illness fail to receive necessary care. Effectively protected from public scrutiny, the prison health care system is uncoordinated, underfunded and has almost zero accountability; thus, escaping outside attention to serious failures of care. Even though a national movement to improve and reform prison health care arose to address these concerns, there is little nationally representative data on the health and health care of America's prisoners. Moreover, there remains a lack of integration between health and social care services once prisoners are back in the community. This paper highlights the need for correctional policy to address the health care needs of prisoners in the United States.

Authors

• Barbara H. Zaitzow, Appalachian State University

• Anthony K. Willis, North Carolina Department of Public Safety