BJA FY 15 Improving Public Safety and Health Outcomes for the Justice-Involved Population

Through this initiative the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), aims to target technical assistance to assist states and localities in creating the necessary policy, programmatic and business practice reforms to facilitate an improvement in health-related outcomes among the justice-involved population, reduce recidivism, and maximize the use of available Medicaid resources to better leverage existing state and local dollars currently being expended for reimbursable healthcare costs. It is an aim of this initiative to increase the percentage of the justice-involved population covered by health insurance, and facilitate the development and testing of a comprehensive continuity of care plan that will accompany each individual receiving healthcare and/or treatment services while under court or correctional involvement. Additionally, by better maximizing Medicaid and the Marketplace resources at all points in the justice system (pre-arrest, arrest/booking, pretrial, adjudication, corrections, and reentry), states and localities stand to save valuable resources by diverting individuals from the justice system altogether or better equipping justice-involved individuals with healthcare resources upon reentry to lower their risk of returning to jail or prison.