Health Care in Prison Thirty Years After Estelle v. Gamble

Abstract

Raising access to health care for incarcerated people to a constitutional right radically changed correctional health care. It also established a constantly changing standard of required care because the right is based on evolving standards of health care in the general community. A prison system must continually monitor new health care possibilities and attempt to determine what is required. Correctional health care must consider access, quality, and cost together as part of a system; this may be easier to do in a clearly defined setting such as corrections than in the community. Estelle also taught incarcerated people that lawsuits can be used to improve care and to attempt to force the prison system to provide the care they want.