In the article “The Health and Health Care of US Prisoners: Results of a Nationwide Survey,” Wilper et al. state, “We are not aware of any study analyzing the prevalence of common chronic conditions or of access to medical and psychiatric care among the incarcerated population as a whole.”1(p666) We believe that readers should be aware of L. M. Maruschak's 2006 study, “Medical Problems of Jail Inmates,”2 and her 2008 report, “Medical Problems of Prisoners.”3 Also, D. J. James and L. E. Glaze coauthored a study, “Mental Health Problems of Prison and Jail Inmates,” in 2006.4 These 3 publications presented analyses of data from 2 Bureau of Justice Statistics surveys, “Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities, 2004” and “Survey of Inmates in Local Jails, 2002” (available at http://www.icpr.umich.edu/NACJD/ncrpc), which were the 2 data sources used by Wilper et al.
Also, it would be helpful for the authors to clarify whether they believe that the figure they cite of twelve million annual releasees from jails and prisons represents unique persons or reflects some persons passing through institutions more than once in a one-year period.
