NCJ Number
220910
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 69 Issue: 5 Dated: October 2007 Pages: 50-52
Date Published
October 2007
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article describes the work of the Research and Evaluation Division of Founder's Trust, a nonprofit research and charitable organization, in conducting a qualitative study of the status of inmate health care in U.S. correctional institutions.
Abstract
After consulting the literature on correctional health care, Founder's Trust spoke directly with the professionals who work daily in advancing inmate health care, and then formed a focus group of professionals who represented correctional health care, public health, and research at the 2006 National Conference on Correctional Health Care in Atlanta. The focus group was composed of 11 people, who identified and discussed barriers to the delivery of inmate health care and practical solutions for overcoming these barriers. Some of the issues considered by the group were inmate responsibility for personal health, funding, unfunded mandates, collaboration, standards, and quality measures and variation. Founder's Trust is currently organizing the focus group discussions of barriers and solutions for inclusion in a full qualitative study. In another phase of the study, Founder's Trust will conduct a telephone survey with medical administrators from a small sample of correctional systems at the Federal, State, and county levels. By early 2008, Founder's Trust expects to complete the full qualitative study and report, which will include the results of the focus group, the summary of relevant correctional health-care presentations from the 2007 American Correctional Association Winter Conference, and the results of the survey of correctional medical administrators. 6 notes