149 - Dr. Emily Wang, Yale Professor of Medicine, on Mass Incarceration’s Impact on Individual & Community Health

Dr. Emily Wang is a professor in the Yale School of Medicine and directs Yale’s new SEICHE Center for Health and Justice, which works to stimulate community transformation by identifying the legal, policy, and practice levers that can improve the health of individuals and communities impacted by mass incarceration. 

Today with Dr. Wang, we’re covering a topic we’ve never touched on in A Second Opinion: the effect of mass incarceration on individual and community health.  It’s an issue that’s overlooked and ignored by our traditional healthcare systems – yet so many are impacted: half of Americans have family members who have been incarcerated.  Dr. Wang’s expertise on this issue will have you rethinking our approaches to jail, prison, and healthcare. 

To read more about what doctors, health system leaders and policymakers can do to support decarceration, Dr. Wang recommends: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2773226. 

For a general review on mass incarceration: https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(17)30259-3.pdf. 

Additional information on the Transitions Clinic Network:

• Website: https://transitionsclinic.org/
• NPR article: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/12/05/499775644/helping-ex-inmates-stay-out-of-the-er-brings-multiple-benefits  
• NY Times article: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/health/ex-prisoners-health-california.html