­Promoting Health Equity in Communities Affected by Mass Incarceration—Addressing Legal Obstacles to Hiring Formerly Incarcerated Individuals as Community Health Workers

Overview

Individuals returning from incarceration have more healthcare needs than the general population but face numerous barriers to receiving care. Specially trained community members with lived experience of incarceration, serving in the role of community health worker (CHW), are uniquely effective at engaging returning community members in health services. This issue brief provides examples of key legal barriers that may be encountered by individuals with incarceration histories who are seeking employment as CHWs along with ways in which policymakers and health systems can address these barriers.