Understanding the Public Health Implications of Prisoner Reentry in California: Phase I Report (Rand Corporation Technical Repo

The first phase of this study used a variety of approaches to assess the health care needs of California prisoners upon their release, the geographic distribution of state prisoners who return to local communities, and the health care services that are available in these communities to provide policymakers with a picture of communities' capacity to meet the needs of parolees and other underserved populations.
This report is designed to help readers better understand the public health challenges of prisoner reentry in California. It represents findings from Phase I of our study. Here, we examine the public health issues surrounding prisoner reentry in California, the types of health care needs that ex-offenders bring with them, which communities are disproportionately affected, and the health care system capacity of the communities to which ex-offenders return. As part of this examination, we addressed three research questions: (1) What are the health care needs of prisoners upon their release and return to the community? (2) What is the geographic distribution of state prisoners who return to local communities in California? and (3) What types of health care services are available in these communities, and what is their ability to meet the needs of returning prisoners?