Academic Health Center-Community Justice Program Partnerships: Linking Men in the Justice System to Health Care

Background: Linkage to community health and social services after incarceration is often inadequate. This is troubling, because risk taking and poor health are common immediately after release, and access to health providers and insurance helps individuals to transition home. Objectives: This article describes how faculty and clinicians at a large academic health center in New York City, established partnerships with justice programs to jointly develop services that aimed to increase health care access for men in the justice system. Methods: We describe how faculty and students from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health (MSPH), clinicians from New York-Presbyterian Hospital's (NYPH) Young Men's Clinic (YMC) and project STAY, and staff from justice programs collaborated to increase access to care. Results: We highlight the characteristics of successful partnerships drawn from the literature on community-based participatory research. Conclusion: We conclude with a discussion of some challenges we encountered and lessons we learned about establishing and sustaining partnerships with court, probation, parole, reentry, and diversion programs while educating the next generation of public health leaders.