Health Care Needs of Inmates Leaving U.S. Prisons and Recommendations for Improving Transitional Health Care

Ex-offenders comprise a vulnerable population that engages in high-risk behaviors with concomitant high rates of infectious disease and chronic illness complicated by poor health care practices. Many offenders lack the necessary resources or skills to initiate or maintain appropriate medical care, a situation that is complicated further by their reluctance to seek treatment. Offenders' poor health care practices, high rates of infectious disease, overreliance on costly emergency medical services, and chronic illness contribute to overburdened health care costs. Returning ex-offenders also pose a potential threat to public health by increasing the risk of disease transmission and drug resistance as a result of failure to seek or continue proper medical treatment. Creating prerelease medical plans that facilitate health promotion and disease prevention once a prisoner is outside of the correctional setting is a complex and challenging problem facing health care providers in the areas of corrections and public health. Ultimately, transitional health care programs promote individual and community health and facilitate continuity of health care. They also have the potential to affect criminogenic behavior and recidivism related to problems with substance abuse or mental illness.