Examining Health Disparities: A Policy Brief on Imprisonment

This policy brief explores the significant connection between imprisonment and poor well-being, highlighting that prisoners often have greater health needs than the general population, including higher rates of psychological illness, communicable and chronic diseases, and substance dependence. It recommends resourcing and designing healthcare services in custodial settings to meet the complex needs of this vulnerable group, ensuring independent health policies within prisons, and incorporating harm reduction approaches. The brief emphasizes the need to address the social determinants leading to imprisonment through national strategies and intergovernmental agreements related to public health, mental health, and homelessness, advocating for investments in upstream measures to improve the well-being of prisoners and detainees. The document adheres to academic integrity standards, utilizing reputable sources such as journals and governmental websites, with information presented in the author's own words.

SOCIAL DETERMINEMTS OF
HEALTH

Table of Contents
POLICY BRIEF..................................................................................................................................3
Policy options and implications.........................................................................................................3
Recommendations for action.............................................................................................................3
How recommendations will address the identified issue....................................................................3
Revised academic integrity and honesty............................................................................................4
REFERENCES....................................................................................................................................5

POLICY BRIEF.
Policy options and implications.
There is generally a strong link among the imprisonment and a poor well-being. As a
group, the prisoners as well as detainees generally involve much higher well-being needs than
the general public have, with elevated levels of psychological illness, the communicable and
chronic illnesses, the injuries or many more disabilities. The prisoners usually tend to be from
disadvantaged background characteristics by an elevated level of unemployment, having less
attainment in education, alcohol dependence and drug addiction and so on. The prison
specifically offers such as providing access to the disadvantaged group who would normally
be hard to reach and however can give the chances to effectively address the disparities in
well-being by means of peculiar well-being interventions. a specific proportion of those who
are incarcerated engage in the risky well-being behaviours, consisting the abuse of alcohol as
well as tobacco smoking. These such people are also more likely to be victims of the
violence or mistreatment as well. In addition to this, both the detainees and the prisoners
involve access to the quality well-being care and has an essential implication for the well-
being of the broader community as well (POSITION STATEMENT ON Health and the
Criminal Justice System, 2012).
Recommendations for action.
 The well-being care services in the custodial settings must be resourced as well as
designed to provide a level of care which is commensurate with the well-being needs
of the prisoners as well as detainees and must accommodate the variety and the
complex requirements of the vulnerable as well as greatly disadvantaged subgroups.
 The well-being policies as well as the provisions within the prisons and a juvenile
detention facility should be given independent of the correction authorities.
 In this, a harm reduction approach must be incorporated within the well-being
policies, the care services and the effective standards of care within the custodial
settings as well.
How recommendations will address the identified issue.
There is a commitment to effectively addressing the components which has led to an
imprisonment as well as the determinants of the reduced well-being between prisoner’s and
detainees generally needs to be embedded in an existing national strategy as well as the
intergovernmental agreements usually associating with the public well-being, indigenous

well-being, their disabilities, mental health as well as the homelessness. In addition to this,
the addressing the link among custody as well as the reduced well-being can needs
investments in the upstream measures which can address the social determinants of
imprisonment (Public Health Association of Australia, 2017).
Revised academic integrity and honesty.
The literature review is the assignment which has been done by following the
academic honesty policy of a university. I did multiple studies online on the google scholar,
PubMed, CINAHL plus, as well as multiple governmental websites. I mainly gathered the
information by reviewing the Journals, published articles and literature as well. in this, the
notions, data from multiple sources are then represented in my own language (Kervick et. al.,
2019).

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Bulmer, M. I. (Ed.). (2021). Social science and social policy. Routledge.
Clark, K. (2018). The effect of mental illness on segregation following institutional
misconduct. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 45(9), 1363-1382.
Clifton, S. (2020). Hierarchies of power: disability theories and models and their implications
for violence against, and abuse, neglect, and exploitation of, people with disability.
Dahlhamer, J., Lucas, J., Zelaya, C., Nahin, R., Mackey, S., DeBar, L., ... & Helmick, C.
(2018). Prevalence of chronic pain and high-impact chronic pain among adults—United
States, 2016. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 67(36), 1001.
Grebely, J., Hajarizadeh, B., Lazarus, J. V., Bruneau, J., Treloar, C., & International Network
on Hepatitis in Substance Users. (2019). Elimination of hepatitis C virus infection among
people who use drugs: Ensuring equitable access to prevention, treatment, and care for
all. International Journal of Drug Policy, 72, 1-10.
Kervick, C. T., Moore, M., Ballysingh, T. A., Garnett, B. R., & Smith, L. C. (2019). The
emerging promise of restorative practices to reduce discipline disparities affecting youth with
disabilities and youth of color: Addressing access and equity. Harvard Educational
Review, 89(4), 588-610.
Letzen, J. E., Mathur, V. A., Janevic, M. R., Burton, M. D., Hood, A. M., Morais, C. A., ... &
Merriwether, E. N. (2022). Confronting Racism in All Forms of Pain Research: Reframing
Study Designs. The Journal of Pain.
Martinovic, M., Liddell, M., & Muldoon, S. D. (2018). Changing views and perceptions: The
impact of the Australian Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program on students. Educational
Research and Evaluation, 24(6-7), 437-453.
Novisky, M. A., Narvey, C. S., & Semenza, D. C. (2020). Institutional responses to the
COVID-19 pandemic in American prisons. Victims & Offenders, 15(7-8), 1244-1261.
Papalia, N., Spivak, B., Daffern, M., & Ogloff, J. R. (2019). A meta‐analytic review of the
efficacy of psychological treatments for violent offenders in correctional and forensic mental
health settings. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 26(2), e12282.
Papalia, N., Spivak, B., Daffern, M., & Ogloff, J. R. (2019). A meta‐analytic review of the
efficacy of psychological treatments for violent offenders in correctional and forensic mental
health settings. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 26(2), e12282.
Pinals, D. A., & Fuller, D. A. (2020). The vital role of a full continuum of psychiatric care
beyond beds. Psychiatric Services, 71(7), 713-721.
Sekalala, S., Dagron, S., Forman, L., & Meier, B. M. (2020). Analyzing the human rights
impact of increased digital public health surveillance during the COVID-19 crisis. Health
and Human Rights, 22(2), 7.
Stephenson, T., Leaman, J., O’Moore, É., Tran, A., & Plugge, E. (2021). Time out of cell and
time in purposeful activity and adverse mental health outcomes amongst people in prison: a
literature review. International Journal of Prisoner Health.
Walker, H. M., Reed, M. G., & Fletcher, A. J. (2021). Applying intersectionality to climate
hazards: a theoretically informed study of wildfire in northern Saskatchewan. Climate
Policy, 21(2), 171-185.

Online:
POSITION STATEMENT ON Health and the Criminal Justice System, 2012 [Online]
Available through: file:///C:/Users/Acer/Downloads/sub12a_AMA.pdf
Public Health Association of Australia, 2017 [Online] Available through:
https://www.phaa.net.au/documents/item/2579