News

by Naseem S. Miller

As the Marion County Jail prepares to begin a new era in inmate health care, another Florida jail is already operating with a similar health program. The Orange County Jail is the third largest jail in Florida. Orange County's Department of Health and Family Services is in charge of the mental health and medical care of inmates, so the model is community-based.

Officials in Hampden County, Massachusetts, have devised a program to improve inmates’ health, protect communities and lower health-care costs. While controlled studies have not yet been conducted, the model is so impressive that a number of states and cities plan to replicate it.

An ambitious health initiative crafted in a Massachusetts county jail that provides care for former inmates in neighborhood health centers is being touted as a national model to improve the well-being of the hard-to-reach and often unhealthy population.

by Paul Sheehan

Community Oriented Correctional Health Services Chief Operating Officer Paul Sheehan describes the history and mission of COCHS, its creation through funding by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and how COCHS provided technical assistance to the District of Columbia as it contracted with Unity Health Care to provide care to inmates in the city’s correctional facilities.