Massachusetts Healthcare Program Gains Recognition

LUDLOW, Mass. — Hampden County Correctional Center’s award-winning healthcare initiative is gaining support as a potential national model that could solve the continuity-of-care crisis for inmates re-entering society.


Developed in conjunction with the Massachusetts Public Health Association in 1992, the Hampden model is based on the premise that a comprehensive program of prevention, education, early detection and treatment, and continuity of care is critical to reducing the incidence and prevalence of disease, illness, substance abuse and antisocial behaviors among the inmate population, officials say.


In 2006, District of Columbia officials instituted the Hampden model in collaboration with Unity Health Care, the district’s largest community healthcare provider. Unity assumed responsibility for treatment at the district’s two jails, which house 3,200 inmates. Almost 19,000 individuals cycle through the district’s jails and 30 decentralized community facilities each year, officials say.


Several county jurisdictions, including the Suffolk County Jail, are currently evaluating the program, officials say. The Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers recently completed an in-depth study of the program performance, viability and efficacy. Officials in Rhode Island, Vermont and Jacksonville, Fla., are considering trialing the healthcare program.


The medium-security HCCC facility implemented the Public Health Model for Correctional Health Care to provide continuity of care to its 1,800 inmates by linking them to the community, and was named Health Care Facility of the Year in 1998 by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care.


In 2000, HCCC was one of 10 winners of the Ford Foundation’s Innovations in American Government Award, which is administered by Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and the nonprofit Council for Excellence in Government.


The award program is designed to draw attention to exemplary achievements in government problem solving. The Ford Foundation has issued award grants totaling almost $16 million since the inception of the awards in 1986.


Under the auspices of the Massachusetts Sheriff’s Department, the HCCC initiative provides a spectrum of comprehensive health and mental health services to inmates by establishing a collaborative system of correctional and public health linkages. In addition to treating acute healthcare needs, the program model also evaluates the long-term care needs of the inmate population, officials say.


By pairing inmates with the same neighborhood health center doctors inside jail and in the community following their release, the initiative leverages the innovative correctional-public health network to provide continuity of care that spans the inmate’s incarceration and transition to society.


Consistent with established public health mandates, the MPHA-Hampden model takes advantage of the period of incarceration to control communicable diseases and promote prevention measures, officials say.


Each year approximately 12 million individuals move in and out of correctional facilities in the United States . Characterized by experts as one of the sickest populations in the country, prisoners exhibit disproportionately higher rates of infectious diseases, mental illness, trauma and substance abuse than the general population, according to the Massachusetts Public Health Association.


Up to 85 percent of inmates report substance-abuse problems. More than one-third of the inmate population reports a medical ailment requiring healthcare when entering the correctional system and almost half are in need of treatment for mental health issues, officials say.


Massachusetts Public Health Association


Hampden County Correctional Center