it’s mandatory
Advocacy OP-ED
Author: emma solini
More than one million men in the United States wake up inside a prison facility every day.
These people are our fathers, sons, brothers, and they are being disproportionately affected by chronic diseases, untreated/unmanaged mental health and substance use disorders, and have limited access to preventive care. Health education programs and prevention services are the most basic and cost-effective solution for them and yet it is rarely implemented and at times ignored.
We need to include incarcerated men in these efforts to achieve better public health outcomes for men across the United States, as health education within prison facilities is a necessity if we want to make impactful investments in health and benefit our overall society. Incarcerated men experience higher rates of hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, infectious disease risks, and mental health struggles than the general male population.
Many men entering correctional facilities have already experienced years of unmanaged medical illness, disruptions in their treatment, financial struggles, and/or little or no access to preventive care measures. Additionally, educational disruptions and early traumatic experiences create long-term health risks for young boys in juvenile correctional facilities.
Due to the large number of men in prisons, default correctional facilities have become one of the largest health care providers for low-income men in the country.
Despite this fact, care often focuses solely on responding to crisis rather than prevention.
These facilities may supply medication, but their inmate patients lack the health literacy and necessary knowledge that will enable them to manage their chronic illnesses, identify their health problems, and understand the health care structure so that they can make informed decisions when it comes to their treatment.
The result of this lack of knowledge is evident when we see most of the recently released prisoners in hospitals and emergency rooms a few days after their release.
These consequences are costly not only for these people but for entire communities and health systems.
The issues of inadequate health care and unsanitary health conditions within these prisons do not stop at the gate, but return to their communities.
Men who have just been released are at greater risk for overdose, cardiac episodes and mental health deterioration during the first month out of prison.
This alone suggests that there are weak points in continuity of care during transition periods. Health education programs teach men how to take their medications properly, how to get preventive tests, and how to schedule appointments, leading to better health and reduced use of emergency services among this population. This should matter to policymakers because preventive education reduces downstream health costs and will strengthen re-entry. Therefore we can see that health education within prisons not only serves as a basic human right but also results in financial savings.
Critics may ask whether expanding health programs within correctional facilities risks creating coercive environments, where participation in these programs is not voluntary but required or used as a disciplinary tool. These are serious concerns and a lot of attention is needed to ensure that this does not happen.
Prisons create high stress environments and their design limits the activities and activities in which these prisoners can participate, which is why it is essential that ethical safeguards are in place. Health education participation of incarcerated men should be voluntary and clearly separated from any disciplinary actions.
The decision to participate should not affect one’s status or privileges as this would defeat the entire purpose of implementing these programs to begin with. Additionally the collection of data needs to follow certain ethical and transparency standards, that way the information cannot be tied back to the prisoners and used against them (especially if they have not benefited from the program/are not enjoying it).
Additionally, given that many of these men have gone through many traumatic life events, making participation voluntary would allow them to opt out if there is a sensitive topic they do not want to sit on. Implementing these safeguards is an essential requirement for the organization and ethical research practices need to be created to intentionally set boundaries between health education and enforcement.
Health education programs are primarily intended to benefit male prisoners rather than meet institutional needs for public exposure.
Men in general already use health services less and have lower life expectancies than women.
Incarcerated men are an extremely disadvantaged group within this larger population and their absence in men’s health strategies has created a lasting gap. Health equity needs to be addressed across all populations. The majority of incarcerated men and boys come from economically and educationally disadvantaged communities and entry into a correctional facility does not help this disruption, although preventative education within these facilities may help interrupt this cycle of education disruption and lack of health literacy. Particularly in the case of young boys in juvenile facilities, early intervention education programs can have impactful results.
Expanding health education in correctional facilities should not be considered a political matter or a way to support prison policy initiatives. This solution is a public health measure that will establish preventive health programs through scientific bases.
These programs will do well to improve the ongoing monitoring problems in many prisons, while also demonstrating their commitment to continuity of care among inmates.
The main objective of health education focuses on restoring human dignity by implementing this social responsibility of ours in prisons. The program recognizes that incarcerated men, although currently behind bars, are truly part of our society and therefore entitled to the basic human rights that everyone in the general population enjoys.
This program will recognize that prevention is more effective than responding to a crisis and it will reflect a certain dedication to achieving measurable results rather than symbolic signals.
Implementation of this operation will require transparency, voluntariness, security measures and should also give priority to prisoner benefits. When done right, it’s a no-brainer, a responsible move, not a radical one.
If we are willing to invest in health education in schools, the workforce, community centers what is stopping us from investing in our male prisoner population, where health disparities are disproportionately concentrated. Public health policy needs to include all people regardless of their status, and choosing to ignore this opportunity is our failure as human beings.
This causes harm that could have been easily prevented and we need to do better.
About the author:
Emma Solini is a Master of Public Policy student at George Mason University, where she specializes in economics and health policy. Her interest in public policy grew from her background in sociology, where she became interested in how economic and social systems can influence health outcomes, which ultimately led her to explore work focused on reducing inequities. She currently focuses on initiatives aimed at expanding health education and preventive care for incarcerated populations. She is particularly interested in using data-driven approaches to inform healthcare policy, economic development, and policy solutions.
