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In this final session of the Diagnosis of Incarceration speaker series, we seek to envision a transformative future for carceral healthcare systems that breaks away from outdated frameworks to be responsive, inclusive, and centered on the well-being of individuals. Drawing on decades of experience and data, experts will help us reimagine a blueprint of solutions to systemic issues that have persisted and propose new directions to models that extend beyond traditional carceral systems to address both the immediate and long-term health needs of individuals. We will explore how technology could be leveraged for continuity of care, and the role of community-based interventions and policy reforms that prioritize equitable health access. We will also question how policy changes within and beyond healthcare systems can protect patients from criminal system contact – particularly individuals already living at the margins. Through this discussion we look forward to inspiring a call to action for stakeholders to collaboratively develop and implement visionary strategies to drive meaningful and creative change into a reimagination of the framework of carceral care. 

Speakers

Christine Mitchell is the program director of the  program at Human Impact Partners, a national public health nonprofit headquartered in Berkeley, CA. She is an organizer with the Boston-based DeeperThanWater Coalition and a co-author of the American Public Health Association policy statements on law enforcement violence and carceral systems.

Carlos Martinez is Assistant Professor of Latin American & Latino Studies at UC Santa Cruz. His teaching emphasizes the political and health inequalities structuring our society and ways that communities enact change. His research lies at the intersection of medical anthropology, public health, and Latinx/Latin American studies. In its various manifestations, his research examines the health consequences and sociocultural implications of migrant policing, deportation, our fractured asylum system, environmental injustice, and the global War on Drugs. He is the co-editor of the forthcoming book, .

David Fathi is Director of the , which brings challenges to conditions of confinement in prisons, jails, and other detention facilities, and works to end the policies that have given the United States the highest incarceration rate in the world. He worked as a staff lawyer at the Project for more than ten years before becoming director in 2010, and has special expertise in challenging “supermax” prisons, where prisoners are held for months or years at a time in conditions of near-total isolation. From 2012 to 2015 he represented the ACLU in negotiations leading to adoption of the United Nations Revised Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, known as the “Nelson Mandela Rules.”

Shamsher Samra, MD, MPhil is  and co-Chair of the Structural Racism and Health Equity Theme at UCLA School of Medicine. He is a member of Frontline Wellness Network -a grassroots organization of care workers committed to improving health and systems of care through decarceration. He is the former medical director of the Whole Person Care Reentry Program and currently supports Los Angeles County Department of Health Service in implementation of the 1115 Medicaid reentry waiver. He is the co-founder the Safe Harbor Violence Intervention Program and Trauma Recovery Center at Harbor UCLA Medical Center.