Public Health Behind Bars: From Prisons to Communities / Edition 1

by Robert Greifinger

Overview

Public Health Behind Bars From Prisons to Communities examines the burden of illness in the growing prison population, and analyzes the impact on public health as prisoners are released. This book makes a timely case for correctional health care that is humane for those incarcerated and beneficial to the communities they reenter.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780387716947
Publisher:	Springer New York
Publication date:	10/17/2007
Edition description:	2007
Pages:	576
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

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.

Table of Contents

Impact of Law and Public Policy on Correctional Populations.- Thirty Years Since Estelle v. Gamble: Looking Forward, Not Wayward.- Impact of Incarceration on Community Public Safety and Public Health.- Litigating for Better Medical Care.- Accommodating Disabilities in Jails and Prisons.- Growing Older: Challenges of Prison and Reentry for the Aging Population.- International Public Health and Corrections: Models of Care and Harm Minimization.- The Medicalization of Execution: Lethal Injection in the United States.- Communicable Disease.- HIV and Viral Hepatitis in Corrections: A Public Health Opportunity.- Prevention of Viral Hepatitis.- HIV Prevention: Behavioral Interventions in Correctional Settings.- Prevention and Control of Tuberculosis in Correctional Facilities.- Controlling Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, and Syphilis Through Targeted Screening and Treatment in Correctional Settings.- Primary and Secondary Prevention.- Health Promotion in Jails and Prisons: An Alternative Paradigm for Correctional Health Services.- Screening for Public Purpose: Promoting an Evidence-based Approach to Screening of Inmates to Improve Public Health.- Written Health Informational Needs for Reentry.- Reducing Inmate Suicides Through the Mortality Review Process.- Blinders to Comprehensive Psychiatric Diagnosis in the Correctional System.- Juvenile Corrections and Public Health Collaborations: Opportunities for Improved Health Outcomes.- Female Prisoners and the Case for Gender-Specific Treatment and Reentry Programs.- Building the Case for Oral Health Care for Prisoners: Presenting the Evidence and Calling for Justice.- Tertiary Prevention.- Treatment of Mental Illness in Correctional Settings.- Treatment and Reentry Approaches for Offenders with Co-occurring Disorders.- Pharmacological Treatment of Substance Abuse in Correctional Facilities: Prospects and Barriers to Expanding Access to Evidence-Based Therapy.- Thinking Forward to Reentry—Reducing Barriers and Building Community Linkages.- Health Research Behind Bars: A Brief Guide to Research in Jails and Prisons.- Reentry Experiences of Men with Health Problems.- Providing Transition and Outpatient Services to the Mentally Ill Released from Correctional Institutions.- Sexual Predators: Diversion, Civil Commitment, Community Reintegration, Challenges, and Opportunities.- Electronic Health Records Systems and Continuity of Care.- Community Health and Public Health Collaborations.- Improving the Care for HIV-Infected Prisoners: An Integrated Prison-Release Health Model.

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Paul J Goldstein, PhD (University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health)
Description: This edited book focuses on medical, legal, and public health issues in the American correctional system. Jails and prisons are presented as sites of medical treatment, as places where typically poor and sick persons may be screened for a variety of illnesses, where prevention interventions may be undertaken, and as institutions which discharge large numbers of persons back into local communities.
Purpose: The authors see the correctional system as the mother lode for those looking for resources and situations to make important improvements in public health practice. The purpose is to stimulate attention and enhance focus in this regard and this is a comprehensive reader with appeal to both students and practitioners. The fact that the United States leads the world in the rate of incarceration of its citizens is duly noted, and the public health implications of this reality are explored.
Audience: 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. The editor, Robert Greifinger, and the deputy editors, Joseph Bick and Joe Goldenson, have assembled an impressive group of contributors that include representatives from medicine, public health, and criminal justice. The foreword is written by David Satcher.
Features: Coverage of issues is far-ranging and comprehensive. Articles focus on oral healthcare, medicalization of execution, female and juvenile issues, infectious disease, chronic disease, mental illness, sexual predation, re-entry into the community, disabilities, HIV, and so on. A vast amount of information and statistics are pulled together in the various articles. This is an important primer for what should be done, but it tends to gloss over analysis of why what most experts say should be done is not always being done. For example, we are told that it is important to screen for hepatitis C (HCV) infections. We are also told that treatment for HCV is costly. We are also told that a series of Supreme Court decisions prohibit correctional institutions from manifesting deliberate indifference to serious medical needs of inmates. However, there is little discussion of the reality that many state and local correctional systems have very limited resources for provision of healthcare, that screening practices may reveal the presence of health conditions that the system cannot afford to treat, and thus some systems may be reluctant to screen for fear that they will be sued for not providing treatment for conditions that their screening has identified. While the book is impressive, it could have been enhanced with photographs (for example, of correctional healthcare facilities — then and now), charts and graphs indicating trends over time, and so on. While the source materials are good, there is little in the way of innovative or graphic methods to present the information.
Assessment: This would be an excellent sourcebook for a graduate seminar in public health and corrections. With its broad coverage of topics and 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. Few other books provide such up-to-date coverage.

Doody's Review Service

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)

From the Publisher