In June 1996, the American Correctional Association's Task Force on Health Care in Corrections identified major correctional health care issues, approaches, and proposed solutions. The Federal Bureau of Prisons has approached the issue through intensive strategic planning, incorporating a multifaceted program of care and custody components, tactical implementation, and continued evaluation and review. The three components of this approach are stratification, flexibility, and versatility. The New York State Department of Correctional Services developed a regionalization plan for its 70 facilities based on similar concepts of stratification. Regionalization enables the department to combine certain activities and provide increased services more economically to a larger, growing inmate population with many special needs. Corrections agencies planning medical and mental health facilities should use an interdisciplinary planning model and understand the design impacts of correctional and health standards. Many industry observers believe that a sound approach is to promote performance-based standards as a means to enhance the effectiveness of health care providers. Figure and 5 references