FOR the average adult, a diabetes diagnosis is life-changing. Managing diabetes involves a daily routine that shifts toward remembering to take medication, check blood sugar, and monitor carbohydrate intake.
Frequent trips to multiple doctors’ offices become the norm, as regular foot checks, dental appointments, eye exams, and primary care visits are crucial for avoiding the complications of poorly managed disease.
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These complications can include gum disease, cardiovascular problems, nerve damage, kidney failure, blindness, and even amputation. Individuals who receive an early diagnosis and manage the disease well can expect to live as long as those without diabetes, but research has linked poor disease management to reduced life expectancy of up to 8 years.
For someone reentering society after being in prison, managing diabetes can be quite difficult. In the United States, more than 2 million people are incarcerated in jails and prisons on a given day, and nearly 5% of them have diabetes.
These individuals typically do not serve life sentences; rather, 95% eventually return to community settings that may not readily embrace them or their medical needs.
For example, taking medication every day requires having a safe place to live and store medications. This is not a given for formerly incarcerated people, many of whom often struggle simply to find a place to live.
In the U.S., individuals who have been inmates in jails or prisons just once are seven times more likely to experience homelessness than the general population. Meanwhile, those who have been incarcerated two or more times are 13 times more likely than other people to lack housing.
Individuals with a criminal history face numerous collateral consequences of conviction — legal restrictions that disqualify them from accessing a range of resources and opportunities upon release.
Unemployment is a major concern for people with a criminal history. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, individuals with a criminal history are nearly five times more likely to be unemployed than the general population. Many employment sectors bar those with a criminal history, limiting their ability to earn the money necessary to afford adequate housing. Those who turn to low-income housing programs often face being denied access, as many public housing programs have strict eligibility criteria that exclude individuals with a criminal history.
