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Incarceration and Sexually Transmitted Infections: A Neighborhood Perspective

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Abstract

The social dynamics of some communities are affected by the loss of significant numbers of people to prison and by the release of others who encounter the challenge of coping with the negative effects of the incarceration experience. The effects on communities are evident, in part, in the high rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in North Carolina (NC) counties that have a high rate of incarceration. In the present study, we examined whether the same associations can be observed at the census tract level in one urban city of NC. To identify the mechanisms by which incarceration can affect the transmission of STIs, we conducted ethnographic interviews with ex-offenders and people who lost a sexual partner to prison. We found that census tract rates of incarceration were consistently associated with gonorrhea rates in the subsequent year. An increase of the percentage of census tract person-time spent in prison from 2.0% to 2.5% corresponded to a gonorrhea rate increase of 7.1 cases per 100,000 person-years. The people interviewed spoke of sexual partnership changes including those left behind finding new partners, in part for help in making financial ends meet; men having sex with men for the first time in prison; and having multiple new partners upon reentry to the community. The statistical associations and stories of the effects of incarceration on sexual relationships provide additional evidence of unintended community health consequences of high rates of incarceration.

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Acknowledgment

This study was funded by grant number 5P01HS010861 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. We thank the Durham County Health Department for providing data on sexually transmitted infections, the North Carolina Department of Corrections for data on incarcerations in Durham County, and Chris Wiesen, Statistics Consultant at the Odum Institute for Social Science Research at UNC, for help in calculating person time per census tract.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    James C. Thomas MPH, PhD, Brooke A. Levandowski & Elizabeth Torrone

  2. Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Malika Roman Isler

  3. Department of Criminal Justice, North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC, USA

    George Wilson

  4. Program in Public Health Ethics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-7435, USA

    James C. Thomas MPH, PhD

Authors
  1. James C. Thomas MPH, PhD
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  2. Brooke A. Levandowski
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  3. Malika Roman Isler
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  4. Elizabeth Torrone
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  5. George Wilson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to James C. Thomas MPH, PhD.

Additional information

Thomas, Levandowski, and Torrone are with the Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA; Isler is with the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA; Wilson is with the Department of Criminal Justice, North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC, USA; Thomas is with the Program in Public Health Ethics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.

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Thomas, J.C., Levandowski, B.A., Isler, M.R. et al. Incarceration and Sexually Transmitted Infections: A Neighborhood Perspective. J Urban Health 85, 90–99 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-007-9231-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-007-9231-1

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