| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
LETTER |
Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Roxanne Leopper, MS, FirstHealth of the Carolinas, Community Health Services, PO Box 3000, Pinehurst, NC 28374 (e-mail: rleopper{at}firsthealth.org).
Thank you for focusing on prisons and health in the October 2005 issue. Ex-offenders’ reentry into society is a public health topic that is not commonly recognized. The authors of "Coming Home From Jail: The Social and Health Consequences of Community Reentry for Women, Male Adolescents, and Their Families and Communities"1 stated that job training, postrelease employment opportunities, and access to primary health care were the key policies issues on which attention needs to focus. At FirstHealth of the Carolinas, a W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Voices partner, we are piloting a local model solution that addresses these policy areas by means of the One-Stop System for Workforce Development.
The North Carolina Department of Corrections provides each prisoner with a list of community resources as part of his or her discharge action plan prior to reentry into the community. One of the sources listed is the local county JobLink program, which, in North Carolina, is part of the federal One-Stop System for Workforce Development. Each JobLink involves various community partners, including the Employment Security Commission, the local community college, the Department of Social Services, vocational rehabilitation services, the local chamber of commerce, and other partners who can assist with education and career development. All of these partners are available in the same area 1 day per week, essentially constituting a one-stop system for professional development. JobLink services are available free of charge for any citizen aged 14 years or older.
FirstHealth of the Carolinas identified this one-stop system as an opportunity to partner with JobLink to provide consumers with linkage to health care. We placed a resource coordinator with the local JobLink program to offer services such as pharmaceutical assistance, general health care navigation information, and assistance with Medicaid applications. The North Carolina Department of Corrections was informed of the partnership so that ex-offenders who needed health care assistance in addition to workforce development services could be actively referred to us.
This partnership helped to form a community safety net that addresses the aforementioned key policy issues at the local level. This model can be replicated in any county in the United States that has a One-Stop System for Workforce Development program. If the prison systems, One-Stop programs, and health care facilities work together, it could result in an opportunity to improve the reintegration of ex-offenders into society and assist them with overcoming 3 difficult reentry barriers: employment, training, and access to health care.
Reference
1. Freudenberg N, Daniels J, Crum M, Perkins T, Richie BE. Coming home from jail: the social and health consequences of community reentry for women, male adolescents, and their families and communities. Am J Public Health. 2005;95:1725–1736.
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  H. Xiao, C. D. Hoffman, G. Brito, C. L. Laton, and S. B. Johnson PREVENTING SMOKING RELAPSE IN THE CAROLINAS Am J Public Health, March 1, 2008; 98(3): 389 - 390. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
