Coalition for Correctional Health Authorities Symposium
Held in Alexandria, Va.

By Lia Gormsen and Lisa Leone

     The Coalition for Correctional Health Authorities (CCHA)was created by the American Correctional Association to bring together leaders in correctional health care. Members include the adult correctional health authorities from each state, the nation’s five largest jails and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Dr. Newton Kendig, medical director of the Health Services Division for the BOP, and Dr. Lannette Linthicum, director of the Health Services Division for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, will co-chair the coalition for two years. The National Institute of Corrections and ACA co-sponsored a symposium that brought these correctional health authorities together on Nov. 28-30, 2007. Forty-two coalition members were able to participate in the symposium in Alexandria, Va., that provided workshops and a chance to develop the future of the coalition.

    Dr. Marc Stern, a CCHA member and the medical director for the Washington State Department of Corrections, said, “I think this is a wonderful concept. It has the potential of being an important organ in establishing standards that the correctional administrators will believe, understand and accept. I am hopeful that this will take flight.”

Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2007
Welcome Dinner Keynote Address

    Rear Adm. Kenneth Moritsugu, M.D., who is retired from the U.S. Public Health Service, opened the first meeting of CCHA on Wednesday evening, proudly announcing that correctional health care is now recognized as an intrinsic component of public safety. As a former medical director and assistant bureau director of medical services for the BOP, Moritsugu reflected on the evolution of correctional health care throughout his career. Historically, corrections has “identified its mission as the protection of society through the incarceration of lawbreakers,” Moritsugu said, characterizing the implementation of health care as sporadic and interventive. Then, after the U.S. Supreme Court mandated inmates’ rights to medical care, correctional systems began to apply federally regulated medical standards. “What had been the supremacy of custody over care, has become a balance of care and custody,” he said.

    With that evolution, Moritsugu explained, came the realization that caring for increasing prison populations and aging inmates would “quickly consume the entire budgets of institutions and systems.” With that, efficiency became a priority and attention was focused on the benefits of preventative care. Investing in resources that promote healthy living “has resulted in healthier inmates less likely to use, misuse or overuse medical services,” Moritsugu proclaimed. He outlined six steps necessary for effective preventative care: good nutrition, physical activity, maintenance of a healthy weight, regular health screenings, vaccinations, and preventing exposure to tobacco and secondhand smoke.         

    Inmates in correctional facilities have a higher prevalence of health problems than the general population, making preventative care “an even more urgent imperative.” Moritsugu urged members of the coalition to view incarceration as an opportunity for inmates to access appropriate care. In this sense, correctional health care plays an important role in public safety by ensuring diseases are treated before inmates return to society.

    Moritsugu then turned his attention to health literacy, “the ability of an individual to access, understand and use health-related information and services to make sound, thoughtful decisions.” Because inmates are likely to have inadequate health literacy, they are at an increased risk of acquiring a disease. Moritsugu called on participants of the coalition to close the literacy gap between what they, as practitioners, know and what their patients understand. “Basic health literacy is fundamental to the success of each interaction between health care professionals and patients — every prescription, every treatment and every recovery,” Moritsugu said.

    He closed by presenting ACA and the next wave of correctional health care professionals with a banner that his staff at the BOP made for him when he was medical director. The banner read, “That was then, this is now!” The saying was a mantra Moritsugu would repeat again and again when staff became discouraged, highlighting for them the strides that have been made in correctional health care. Referring to a quote by cultural anthropologist Margaret Meade, Moritsugu challenged members of the coalition to “be that group of dedicated, committed individuals who will change the world.”

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