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Medical Program at D.C. Jail Named “Program of the Year”
Washington, D.C. – Councilmember David Catania (At-Large) recently congratulated the D.C. Department of Corrections and Unity Healthcare for receiving the National Commission on Correctional Health Care’s (NCCHC) “Program of the Year” award. The award has been given each year since 1993 and recognizes programs of excellence among thousands of accredited jails, prisons, and juvenile facilities. In 2006, the DOC and Unity Healthcare implemented a community-oriented discharge process that links medical services received during incarceration with those received after discharge. The NCCHC honored this innovative approach to correctional healthcare at its National Conference on Correctional Health Care in Chicago, Illinois.
“The District’s correctional health care program is a national model,” said Catania. “All of those involved in the DOC and Unity, especially Director Brown and Vincent Keane, are to be congratulated for this prestigious award.”
Catania played an instrumental role in the development and design of the DOC’s current medical and HIV/AIDS testing programs. In response to a scathing report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and growing community concerns regarding health services at the D.C. Jail, in June 2005 Catania and Councilmember Phil Mendelson held a joint oversight hearing on the subject. At the hearing, 25 public witnesses testified and urged the government to identify an alternate model of care. Among the issues cited with the previous system were irregular and potentially dangerous conditions of discharge, overwhelming bureaucratic barriers to care, difficulties with consistent medication administration, lack of coordination between the healthcare provider and District health agencies, and insufficient treatment for mentally ill inmates.
In the aftermath of the hearing, Catania was the driving force behind the adoption of a “community oriented” model of health care. Unity Healthcare, which operates the largest number of health care clinics in the city, was selected to provide medical services to inmates. Upon discharge, inmates can visit any of Unity’s 30 community health centers and even schedule appointments with the same doctor they saw while incarcerated. The model has resulted in substantially high numbers of inmates keeping doctors’ appointments after their release.
“Prior to the beginning of our work in 2005, there was absolutely no connectivity between health services provided to inmates while incarcerated and those provided outside the jail,” said Catania. “The DOC and Unity have worked exceptionally hard to increase the number of inmates who are provided health care after they leave the jail. It is a difficult proposition, but if done correctly, it can make a major difference in the health outcomes of this population.”
Earlier this year, the DOC received accreditation from both the NCCHC and the American Correctional Association. It marked the first time in the 32-year history of the D.C. Jail that it had been simultaneously accredited by both major accrediting institutions. In addition, the DOC recently received an “A” in the D.C. Appleseed Center for Law and Justice’s Annual HIV/AIDS Report Card. The department was singled-out for its automatic testing program. Currently, the DOC is responsible for over one-third of all HIV/AIDS screenings that occur in the District.
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