Communicable diseases move freely between the locked and free communities, and during the last 15 years, the issue of communicable diseases has increasingly impacted the operations of correctional facilities. This article discusses the ways in which both correctional and public health administrators have an obligation to protect the public from communicable diseases, and indicates that correctional facilities provide public health departments with an ideal opportunity to find and treat individuals with sexually transmitted diseases who would not normally seek out public health clinics. Open communications and the development of mutual respect between corrections personnel and public health administrators is vital to combating communicable disease. Administrators of both public health agencies and correctional facilities have a responsibility and duty to protect the offender population as well as the larger community from diseases.