Bridging the gap between health and justice

Abstract

What does health have to do with justice? Everything! More than seven million people in the United States are currently under some form of criminal justice supervision, and control (whether in jail, prison, or on probation or parole), and they have somatic and mental health issues in rates that are much higher than those found in the general population. Ignoring these issues will contributes to health disparities and negative outcomes and this will be unjust—not only for those individuals—for the communities in which they live (or will live, upon release), and for human kind in general. As this article will show, the health needs of this population are also of paramount importance to those within specific communities, even if they are not currently involved with the criminal justice system. It is thus critically important to bridge the gap between the fields of public health and criminal justice by promoting an interdisciplinary discourse that brings together professionals and scholars from both ends of the justice and health spectrum; and thus better serve society, and address health disparities issues that affect health and justice. Criminal justice practitioners and public health workers may, at first glance, seem to be in unrelated (sometimes even opposing) fields, but in fact, they share many of the same challenges, as they both deal with human beings, environments, and public safety. Yet these two fields have long operated in parallel universes, and only recently has that approach begun to change. Scholars, practitioners, and policy makers from both sides have started to share ideas and information in an effort to create a better response to rising challenges that concern both fields. So far, most of the work has been related to incarcerated offenders and their rehabilitation and reintegration, but health-related issues are also relevant for examining and intervening with non-incarcerated criminal justice populations. As Levy (2007) states, “...public health practices inform and empower individuals and communities, and create healthy environments through the use of evidence-based