U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Prison Health Care

NCJ Number
127292
Journal
Corrections Compendium Volume: 11 Issue: 1 Dated: (July 1986) Pages: 7,13-14
Editor(s)
D Hunzeker
Date Published
1986
Length
3 pages
Annotation
A survey of U.S. prison systems found that the average annual cost to provide health care services to inmates was over $1,100. Washington reported spending only 2 percent of its budget on health care, while Arkansas spent nearly 13 percent of its correction department's budget on these services; the average expenditure was nearly 7 percent of total budgets.
Abstract
While four States provided all health services with no outside private contractors, four others reported that all health care services are provided by private contract firms. Hospital and medical specialists services are often contracted out; in some States, private contracts are used for all services in some facilities and less frequently or not at all in others. Two States carry catastrophic coverage for their inmates. 2 tables