Kate LeMasters: “The Epidemiology of Health Equity for Those Impacted by Mass Incarceration”

Abstract: Mass incarceration is a system of social and racial control in the United States that arrests, convicts, incarcerates, and supervises racial and ethnic minority populations through probation and parole. Mass incarceration affects those who are incarcerated and under community supervision, as well as the families and communities where it is concentrated, and is a pervasive cause of health inequities in the United States. In this presentation, I will provide background on mass incarceration in the US, present an overview of what we do know as it relates to health, present an example from my work, and outline next steps for research.

Bio: Katherine LeMasters is an assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine and the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine, and a scholar in the Lifespan/Brown Criminal Justice Research Training Program. Trained as a social epidemiologist and community-engaged researcher, she studies the intersection of mass incarceration and health equity at the individual and community levels. Her current work focuses on how the felonization of fentanyl affects criminal legal involvement, substance use, and overdose; how participation in the Transitions Clinic Network post-incarceration affects healthcare use and structural determinants of health; conditions of confinement – such as solitary confinement and extreme heat; and the relationship between probation, mental health, and suicide.