ADVERSE IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH
Policing, prisons, prison-like institutions, and the whole prison industrial complex are bad for public health — for the health of communities who experience constant, racialized, police surveillance and the 7 million people under correctional control in the United States and their families.
Many public health practitioners recognize that the US criminal legal system is not an institution engaged in primary prevention of public health problems or addressing root causes, and it is imperative to further contextualize this system as one that is, itself, a root cause of public health problems. Selected resources in this section demonstrate the negative health impact of the prison industrial complex, and how it interferes with public health. Updated 2.23.22.
Selected Resources
Discussion Questions
Who To Follow
For Further Learning
Find existing decarceration campaigns or groups in your area, region, or state like #FreeThemAllForPublicHealth.
Sign up for their next call, action, event and learn more about how you can support their work.
For people in governmental public health institutions, in what ways can you use your authority to push for decarceration as a public health strategy?
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Last updated May 2021