Improving inmate health can lead to better community health and safety

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-02/smh-iih022315.php

Public Release: 25-Feb-2015
St. Michael's Hospital

If prisoners received better health care while behind bars and after release, both their health and the community's health would improve, new research has found.

Offering treatment to prisoners or by linking them to community-based family physicians and psychiatrists after they are released leads to less substance abuse, mental health problems, chronic diseases and health service utilization, as well as a reduced spread of infectious diseases, according to a systematic review published today in the American Journal of Public Health.

"Improving health in people in jails and prisons can also improve the health of the general population, improve the safety of our communities and decrease health care costs," said Dr. Fiona Kouyoumdjian, a post-doctoral fellow with the Centre for Research on Inner City Health of St. Michael's Hospital. "For example, treating infectious diseases can prevent ongoing transmission, treating people with mental illness can decrease crime, and providing access to primary care can cut down on expensive Emergency Department use."

•••••