Health Policy Institute Urges Federal Government to Reform the Nation's Prisons

Washington, DC - The Joint Center Health Policy Institute (HPI) today called conditions in the nation's jails and prisons a "devastating experience" for many African American males, and their families, and called upon national leaders to launch a campaign to reform the horrific health environment in correctional facilities.

Citing a recent report by the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons, HPI Director Dr. Gail Christopher said that correctional facilities pose a major threat to the health of African American males. Further, she asserted that prison reform must become a public policy priority if the nation is to seriously address the social, health and economic problems that young African American males face today.

"As a society, we often overlook the impact that prisons have on communities," Dr. Christopher said. "When black males are incarcerated, they can't provide support for their families. And when they return to their communities, the traumatic experiences faced in prison are more likely to lead to a return to prison than reform them to be productive members of their communities."

Dr. Christopher, who oversees the work of the Dellums Commission, which is preparing a broad report on the challenges faced today by young African American males, noted that the prison environment has a major impact in African American communities because of the disproportionate number of blacks behind bars. The 2000 Census found that black males are about six percent of the U.S, population, yet nearly half of the two million prisoners incarcerated in the United States are black males. In direct comparison to white males, the statistics paint an even starker contrast: White males are incarcerated at a rate of 649 per 100,000 white males in the population, while black males are incarcerated at a rate of 4,810 per 100,000 black males in the population. Since the 2000 Census, the prison population has increased to 2.2 million, with 56,000 new prisoners added to the ranks last year.

"What these numbers tell us is that when studies are done on conditions in jails and prisons they are largely talking about the environment that many African Americans encounter on a daily basis," Dr. Christopher said. "The public can not afford to ignore what is happening behind bars. Eventually, many of those prisoners are released and return to our streets and neighborhoods. It will benefit everyone if more attention was paid to improving health care and living conditions, and reforming prisoners."

The report by the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons found that violence is a serious problem in correctional facilities, as rapes, riots and gang attacks are rampant. Moreover, the commission found that inadequate healthcare has contributed to making prisons an incubation zone for contagious diseases, such as hepatitis C, staph infections, tuberculosis and AIDs. They also criticized using segregated units to house prisoners who appear to be unmanageable, then releasing those people directly onto the streets in the communities when their sentences are up. And the commission said the location of prisons in remote areas, and making it difficult for inmates to have visitors, strains ties to their families and is counter productive.

Clearly, Dr. Christopher said, these conditions must be quickly addressed. "We are taking people and subjecting them to cruelty in what is supposed to be part of our 'Justice System,'" she said. "How can we expect people to be rehabilitated in this environment? We have created a vicious cycle for many African American males. They return from prison battered and abused and often continue that cycle of violence in their community."

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