Are some communities affected by the health conditions of returning individuals more than others?
Yes. In every state there are relatively few neighborhoods where a disproportionate number of formerly incarcerated individuals return from prison or jail; for example, despite housing only 3.5 percent of Miami’s population, a single ZIP code is home to 16.1 percent of all parolees in the city and 10.7 percent of all probationers.11 These “high-stakes” areas may lack the resources and services to address the health needs of reentering individuals—such as a higher prevalence of risky health behaviors, communicable diseases, and multiple complex illnesses. To exacerbate matters, in many of these communities, healthcare services other than hospital emergency rooms are largely inaccessible or underutilized.
