The dual epidemics of incarceration and HIV in the US have led to a high concentration of HIV -infected individuals in incarcerated settings [15].
Treatment has also shown to reduce the costs associated with lost productivity, crime, and incarceration across various settings and populations.
It is both more humane, and less expensive to subsidize families who keep their elders at home than to pay for their incarceration in impersonal institutional settings.
[ 18] Findings from related inquiries into sexual risk factors for ex-prisoners suggest the experience of incarceration, transition to non-correctional settings and reintegration into communities all influence post-release behaviours.
However, research has been limited in regards to patterns of incarcerations for patients treated in public mental health settings.
Given this body of evidence, it is plausible that patients with a history of incarceration also anticipate and perceive discrimination in the healthcare settings.
These programs are predicated on the knowledge that some people, despite numerous efforts, cannot or will not stop using heroin and that their continued use in unsupervised settings creates costs related to arrests and incarceration, increased healthcare expenses, supporting the illicit drug trade, overdose, and loss of employment and housing.
Language barriers, legal status, fear of losing employment and arrest, and incarceration or deportation on the way to health care settings prevent patients from accessing health care services early.
Over-incarceration of drug users in prison and pre-trial detention settings also creates breeding grounds for infectious disease, particularly HIV, blood-borne hepatitis and TB [ 106].
Finally, in addition to the impacts of the incarceration environment and healthcare provision there is a lack of educational and discharge planning programs in correctional settings.
