The Health and Justice Working Group is a leading coalition of Alternative-to-Incarceration and Reentry providers, government agencies, healthcare, housing, employment, education and supportive service providers, as well as research and policy partners. Organized in partnership with the Legal Action Center, the group is uniquely positioned to bring together the organizations and agencies that engage and serve criminal justice-involved individuals, particularly those with chronic behavioral and physical health needs. The group meets quarterly to discuss forthcoming programs and priorities and provide a unique cross-sector networking opportunity for attendees.

The NYC Health & Justice Working Group aims to accelerate coordination between agencies and partner organizations while addressing persistent structural barriers and policy concerns. In pursuit of these aims, group members share current best practices and discuss policy reforms. We focus on three key areas of focus:

Access and Connections to Behavioral Health Care
Care managers and providers across the spectrum of behavioral health services need to build stronger relationships that include better communications and coordination structures with criminal justice actors, including police, court personnel, jail-based social workers and community corrections.  Regular working group meetings and well-maintained points of contact help to build these relationships and formalize communication protocols. 

Information Sharing and Consent
Perhaps the most consistent barrier to cross-sector care coordination, the sharing of sensitive health information prior to and soon after a transition of care is vital to successful client engagement and reduction in avoidable health emergencies.  Members regularly collaborate to identify critical points of intervention where enhanced data sharing is needed (e.g., between arrest and arraignment) and to grow the scale and scope of institutions that can receive data from Correctional Health Services medical and discharge planning teams. 

Policy Concerns
Several important policy changes have already been rolled out and the key to improving care lies in operationalizing their advantages.   In particular, members of the group expressed strong interest in operationalizing behavioral health parity laws through integrated care models and supporting the state’s efforts to allow pre-release Medicaid billing for a specific set of services that can improve care continuity from carceral to community settings.