Justice on the Frontlines: Case Studies in the Delivery of Community Healthcare

In this session we are joined by experts who have provided healthcare to individuals affected by the criminal legal system. A range of case studies will propel our discussion on the unique challenges to care and continuity in this patient population. We will discuss tactics and strategies stemming from models implemented in both urban and rural contexts, as well as states that have had varying degrees of access to Medicaid expansion services. Our expert panelists bring years of experience working on the integration of radical philosophical frameworks, collaboration with community health workers, as well as in the technology of telemedicine, and flexibility of mobile health clinics to address gaps in care. In the last few years, significant discussion has centered on the potential of Medicaid 1115 waivers to revolutionize health care delivery for those touched by the justice system by expanding funding for re-entry and other services. We will explore the promise of this pathway as well as its limits for systemic reform and the need for continued exploration of adaptable, sustainable policy-based healthcare solutions.

Speakers

Mary T. Bassett is the Director of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, as well as the FXB Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health. With more than 30 years of experience in public health, Dr. Mary Travis Bassett has dedicated her career to advancing health equity. Prior to her directorship at the FXB Center, Dr. Bassett served for four years as commissioner of Health for New York City.

John Card joined the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School in 2022 as a Staff Attorney in the Health Law and Policy Clinic. Prior to joining the Center, John was a staff attorney at the Health Law Institute in Jamaica Plain where he provided free legal services to people living with or at high risk of HIV. His prior work focused on a variety of areas, including tenant rights, public benefit appeals, and criminal record sealing. John also has expertise in LGBTQ+ organizing, harm reduction and substance use disorder, and policing and public health.

Margaret Hayden is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and the Associate Director of Health Humanities at the Center for Health Humanities & Ethics at the University of Virginia. Previously, she was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at University of Alabama-Birmingham and worked as a physician at the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) where she helped to establish a clinic that provided free transitional primary health care to people leaving jails and prisons across Alabama.

Sanjay Kishore is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Virginia; he was previously an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Alabama-Birmingham and worked at the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) to provide transitional primary care to individuals recently released from prison and jail, with a focus on hepatitis C evaluation and treatment.

The Diagnosis of Incarceration speaker series is moderated and organized by Kennedy School MPA Candidate Dr. Cara Muñoz Buchanan, in collaboration with Katy Naples-Mitchell, Program Director of the Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management, and Sandra Susan Smith, Guggenheim Professor of Criminal Justice; Faculty Director, Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management; Director, Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy; Professor of Sociology; and Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute.