. Wechsler H, Dowdall GW, Davenport A, Rimm EB. A gender-specific measure of binge drinking among college students. Am J Public Health. 1995;85:982-985. 22. Buckner JC. The development of an instrument to measure neighborhood cohesion. Am J Community Psychol. 1988;16:771-
A B S T R A C TObjectives. This study obtained comprehensive health information from newly admitted correctional inmates.Methods. Interviews were conducted with 1198 inmates on day 3 of their incarceration.Results. Interviewers found a high prevalence of chronic medical and mental health issues, limited access to health care, high rates of infections and sexually transmitted diseases, substantial substance abuse, other unhealthy behaviors and violence, and a strong desire for help with health-related problems.Conclusions. The data document the need to apply the public health approach to correctional health care, including detection and early treatment of disease, education and prevention to facilitate health and behavior change, and continuity of care into the community. (Am J Public Health. 2000;90:1939-1941 Correctional institutions have long been seen as reservoirs of physical and mental illness and of psychosocial problems, all of which flow back into the community as inmates are released.3 However, only more recently have medical and correctional communities begun to recognize the full extent to which mental problems, substance abuse disorders, and communicable diseases are concentrated in the correctional system and the public health opportunity this presents. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] To address these issues, the Hampden County Correctional Center (HCCC) over the past 5 years has been developing a systematic public health model of correctional medical care emphasizing detection, early and effective treatment, patient education, prevention, and continuity of care. A key feature of the system is the sharing of correctional health care with community health agencies through physicians and case managers dually based in the correctional center and in the communities to which inmates return on release.
12HCCC and the University of Massachusetts School of Public Health and Health Sciences in Amherst conducted a baseline health study of the HCCC correctional population to better elucidate the extent of inmate preincarceration health problems, health facility use, and health-related risky behaviors.
MethodsHCCC is a medium-security correctional center located in western Massachusetts that houses 1800 inmates, including persons awaiting court appearances and sentenced prisoners. Approximately one third of the inmates remain 3 days or less, one third stay for 4 to 90 days, and one third stay for 91 days to 2 years. Successive inmates newly admitted to HCCC over a 5-month period were interviewed on the third day of their incarceration concurrently with, but separately from, their clinical examination.The interviews were conducted in a private room in the medical facility by trained, ethnically diverse interviewers employed specifically for ...