Grant: Project Grant

People who go to correctional centres (prisons) experience poorer health compared with the general population. They have higher rates of overdose, substance use, mental illness and sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections. To reduce unequal health outcomes and respond to provincial public health challenges like the overdose crisis, there has been significant interest in improving health care in correctional centres. Better quality and availability of health care services in correctional centres can improve the health of people who are incarcerated and reduce the chance that people will commit future crimes. In 2017, the responsibility for delivering health care in British Columbia's (BC) provincial correctional centres was transferred from a provincial ministry of justice to a provincial health agency. The objective of this project is to determine whether the change in management of health care improved the health of people who have been in BC's provincial correctional centres. We will use linked health and corrections records over a 10-year period (Jan. 1, 2012 to Dec. 31, 2022) to identify changes in health care delivery, death from overdose and from all-causes, and crime for approximately 5 years before and 5 years after the transfer of health care services. This project is critical to national and international efforts to reform the delivery of health care services for people who experience incarceration. Findings can be used to inform policies and procedures in both criminal justice and community health systems.