The Importance of Correctional Health Care Curricula in Medical Education

We designed an anonymous survey to identify knowledge gaps regarding correctional medicine and health disparities for justice-affected patients and distributed it to medical students. Fifty-six percent of the 140 students who responded (14% response rate) had some interaction with the criminal justice system and/or a justice-affected person. Most students somewhat agreed to having knowledge of health risks/disparities related to incarceration. Most were unaware of correctional medicine as a subspecialty. A majority felt comfortable providing care to justice-affected patients and on average agree this population should have equal access to health care. There was a statistically significant correlation between students who considered correctional medicine as a career and belief that these patients should have equal health care access, with the importance of including correctional health care in medical education. We agree with the growing body of literature that concludes there is a need for correctional health care curricula in medical education.