An article authored by Derrick M. Gordon, Ph.D. has been nominated to receive this year's highly selective American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) Paper of the Year Award. Gordon is senior author of the paper entitled "The role of prevention in promoting continuity of health care in prisoner reentry initiatives."
Gordon is an assistant professor of psychiatry in the department's Psychology Section and Division of Prevention & Community Research. He is director of Research, Policy, and Program on Male Development at The Consultation Center.
The November issue of AJPH will feature a column recognizing Gordon and his co-authors.
The article examines how incarcerated individuals will return to the community, and notes that their successful reentry requires consideration of their health and how their health will affect their families and communities.
The authors propose the use of a prevention science framework that integrates universal, selective, and indicated strategies to facilitate the successful reentry of men released from prison. Understanding how health risks and disparities affect the transition from prison to the community has the potential to enhance reentry intervention efforts.
To explore the application of the prevention rubric, Gordon and his team evaluated a community-based prisoner reentry initiative. The findings challenge reentry initiatives to reconceptualize prisoner reentry from a program model to a prevention model that considers multilevel risks to and facilitators of successful reentry.
Citation:
American Journal of Public Health: The Role of Prevention in Promoting Continuity of Health Care in Prisoner Reentry Initiatives
May 2013, Vol. 103, No. 5, pp. 830-838. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2012.300961