Why are healthcare services so critical for successful reentry?
Prisons and jails offer uniquely important opportunities for improving the health of individuals in the community by identifying health conditions and providing treatment and disease prevention programs to a large and concentrated group of individuals who often have complex and multiple health needs. Releasing individuals with untreated illnesses can create an additional financial burden on a local community’s public health system, particularly its emergency services. For individuals with substance abuse and mental health disorders, access to continuing community-based care upon release complements jail and prison interventions, supports an individual’s recovery and ability to comply with conditions of release, and leverages the financial investment made to treat the person while he or she was incarcerated.
