Hostname: page-component-68945f75b7-s5tfc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-04T21:34:38.276Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tuberculosis in Correctional Facilities: The Tuberculosis Control Program of the Montefiore Medical Center Rikers Island Health Services

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Steven M. Safyer ,
Lynn Richmond ,
Eran Bellin  and
David Fletcher
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

“Recognizing that prisons disproportionately confine sick people, with mental illness, substance abuse, HIV disease among other illnesses; and that prisoners are subject to further morbidity and mortality in these institutions, due to lack of access and/or resources for health care, overcrowding, violence, emotional deprivation, and suicide.…(APHA) condemns the social practice of mass imprisonment.”

After decades of steady decline, tuberculosis has emerged as a significant public health threat in the United States. The rising rates of tuberculosis cases, an increasing proportion of which are resistant to standard chemotherapies, are linked to the many scourges threatening our communities: the explosion of poverty, drug use, violence, the HIV epidemic, and the concomitant rise in congregate housing including homeless shelters, residential drug treatment programs and incarceration facilities. Jails and prisons have disproportionately high rates of tuberculosis infection and have been implicated as points of tuberculosis spread and, as such, are a critical point for tuberculosis control interventions.

Type
Article
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 21 , Issue 3-4 , Fall Winter 1993 , pp. 342 - 351
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Braun, Miles, Tusman, Benedict, Maquire, Barbara, DiFerdinando, George T., Wormser, Gary, Broaddus, Raymond, Morse, Dale L., “Increasing Incidence of Tuberculosis in a Prison Inmate Population: Association with HIV,” The Journal of the American Medical Association, 261 (Jan. 1989): 293–97; Bellin, Eran, Fletcher, David, Safyer, Steven M., “Association of Tuberculosis Infection with Increased Time in or Admission to the New York City Jail System,” The Journal of the American Medical Association, 269 (May 1993): 1-4; Ables, H., Feibes, E., Mandel, E., Girard, J. A., “The Large City Prison—A Reservoir of Tuberculosis: Tuberculosis Control among Sentenced Male Prisoners in NYC,” American Review of Respiratory Disease, 101 (1970): 706-09; King, Lambert, Geis, George, “Tuberculosis Transmission in a Large Urban Jail,” The Journal of the American Medical Association, 237 (Feb. 1977): 791-92; Stead, William, “Undetected Tuberculosis in Prison (Source of Infection for the Community at Large),” Journal of the American Medical Association, 240 (1978): 2544-47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mahmoudi, Artin, Iseman, Michael D., “Pitfalls in the Care of Patients with Tuberculosis,” The Journal of the American Medical Association, 270 (July 1993): 65–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedan, T., Sterling, T., Pablos-Mendez, A., “The Emergence of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis in New York City,” New England Journal of Medicine, 328:521–526 (February 25, 1993).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“Transmission of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis among Immunocompromised Persons in a Correctional System,” Monthly Mortality Weekly Review, 41 (July 1992): 507–09.Google Scholar
Barnes, Peter F., Bloch, Alan B., Davidson, Paul T., Snider, Dixie E., “Tuberculosis in Patients with Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection,” New England Journal of Medicine, 324 (June 1991): 1644–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“Tuberculosis in New York City,” Information Summary 1992. Bureau of Tuberculosis Control. New York City Department of Health.Google Scholar
The Federal Anti-Drug Act of 1986 requires prison sentences of low-level carriers as well as high-volume dealers.Google Scholar
Snider, Dixie E., Hutton, M.D., “Tuberculosis in Correctional Institutions,” The Journal of the American Medical Association, 261 (Jan. 1989): 436–37; “In 1991, State and Federal prisons were operating at 25.1 percent over capacity,” Americans Behind Bars, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, (March 1992).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“This represents a 20 percent increase over the previous year,” Americans Behind Bars, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation (March 1992).Google Scholar
Special Report: “Women in Prison,” U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics (1991).Google Scholar
National Institute of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Sourcebook (1991).Google Scholar
Mauer, M., “Young Black Men and the Criminal Justice System: A Growing National Problem,” Washington, The Sentencing Project, 1990:1.Google Scholar
Miller, Jerome G., Hobbling a Generation: Young African-American Mates in the Criminal Justice System of America's Cities; Baltimore, September 1992, National Center on Institutions and Alternatives.Google Scholar
Americans Behind Bars, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation (March 1992).Google Scholar
“Homelessness and Indicators of Mental Illness among Inmates in New York City's Correctional System,” Hospital and Community Psychiatry, 43 (1992): 150–55.Google Scholar
Stead, William, “Undetected Tuberculosis in Prison (Source of Infection for Community at Large),” The Journal of the American Medical Association, 240 (1978): 2544–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
New York City Department of Health, “Tuberculosis in New York City 1991—Information Summary Bureau of Tuberculosis Control,”Google Scholar
“Tuberculosis in New York City,” Information Summmary 1992 New York City Department of Health Bureau of Tuberculosis Control.Google Scholar
“Tuberculosis in New York City,” Information Summary 1992, New York City Department of Health Bureau of Tuberculosis Control.Google Scholar
Brudney, Karen, Dobkin, Jay, “Resurgent Tuberculosis in New York City: Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Homelessness, and the Decline of Tuberculosis Control Program,” American Review of Respiratory Disease, 144 (1991):745–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brudney, Karen, Dobkin, Jay, “Tale of Two Cities: Tuberculosis Control in Nicaragua and New York City,” Seminars in Respiratory Infections, 6 (1991): 261–272.Google Scholar
“Prior to 1980, two thirds of federal anti-drug funding was devoted to prevention, treatment and education. Two years later, the emphasis was reversed and has remained so. In 1991,70 percent of the 10.8 billion drug budget was spent on law enforcement and interdiction; 30 percent went to treatment and prevention,” Americans Behind Bars, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation (March 1992).Google Scholar
National Institute of Justice. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Sourcebook (1991).Google Scholar
Americans Behind Bars, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, March 1992.Google Scholar
1991 Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics. U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.Google Scholar
Weisfuse, I., Back, Greenberg B. et al., “HIV-1 Infection Among New York City Inmates,” AIDS, 5 (1991): 1133–1138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richmond, L.B., unpublished data. 1993.Google Scholar
Bickell, N.A., Vermund, S.H., Holmes, M., Safyer, S.M., Burke, R.D., “Human Papillomavirus, Gonorrhea, Syphilis and Cervical Dysplasia in Jailed Women,” American Journal of Public Health, 81 (1991): 1318–1320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
The Rikers Island figures are based on prescribing medications. Many patients are discharged from the system before confirmation of diagnostic tests can occur.Google Scholar
The examination and assessment include a Purified Protein Implant (PPD) to detect the presence of tuberculosis infection, complete blood work including a syphilis test. In addition, women receive pregnancy tests, gonorrhea testing, and chlamydia tests. HIV antibody testing is available through our voluntary and confidential HIV counseling and testing program. Patients are given a number and if they are released from the system before receiving their results they can access the results through the Department of Health HIV testing sites.Google Scholar
“Anergy Compromises Screening for Tuberculosis in High Risk Populations,” APHA, 83 (1993): 749–751.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellin, E., Fletcher, D., Safyer, S., “Abnormal Chest X-rays in Intravenous Drug Users: Implications for Tuberculosis Screening Programs,” American Journal of Public Health, 83 (May 1993).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eran, Bellin, M.D. Fletcher, David, MPH, unpublished data.Google Scholar
Unpublished data, Bellin, E.Google Scholar
Cohn, D.L., Catlin, B.J., Peterson, K.L. et al., “A 62-Dose, 6-Month Therapy for Pulmonary and Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis: A Twice-Weekly, Directly Observed, and Cost-Effective Regimen,” Annals of Internal Medicine, 112 (1990): 407–415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar