Using linked data to improve the health of people who experience incarceration

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

Using linked data to improve the health of people who experience incarceration

Investing in the health of people released from prison can simultaneously improve their wellbeing and avoid a return to jail, research suggests.

A recent study found that people who presented to emergency departments frequently after their release from prison were more likely than those who did not attend an ED to return to jail.

The finding is one of dozens from the Health After Release from Prison (HARP) project, the largest prospective cohort study of people released from prisons anywhere in the world.

The study combines rich baseline surveys with prison medical records, and retrospectively and prospectively linked state health and correctional records, and Commonwealth data including Medicare, PBS, and death records.

Professor Kinner, who heads the Justice Health Unit at The University of Melbourne and leads the HARP study, says investing in healthcare can help prevent reincarceration.

Other findings from the project include remarkably low uptake of prescribed contraception among women released from prison, very low uptake of prescribed smoking cessation aids, and very poor engagement with community mental health services.

People released from prison also experience high rates of non-fatal overdose and injuries, notably including high rates of self-harm, and are more likely to be victims of violence.

“The HARP cohort has shone a light on what happens to people released from prison in a way that no other study ever really has,” Professor Kinner says.

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