A Call to Action: The Role of Academic Family Medicine in the Era of Mass Incarceration (Warren Ferguson MD)

The United States incarcerates seven times more citizens than most developed countries. Fueled by the war on drugs and deinstitutionalization of those with serious mental illness, the burden of incarceration disproportionately affects people of color, ethnic minorities, and those living in poverty. While 95% of incarcerated persons return to society, recidivism rates stand at 75% in 5 years. More than 100 million Americans have criminal records. A criminal record impedes access to employment, shelter, transportation, and health care. With this downstream impact on social determinants, and with one in three black men facing a lifetime risk of incarceration, the evidence is clear: involvement with the criminal justice system is our worst health disparity. Only a minority of academic health science centers are engaged in health services research, workforce training, or correctional health care despite the large proportion of society affected. Dr Ferguson will discuss his path to this work and lay out a blueprint for engagement of academic family medicine institutions to harness their capabilities in clinical care, education and research to tackle one of the country's most vexing crises.
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