Guest blogging this week for Ezra Klein, University of Chicago professor Harold Pollack has a must-read post on the striking intersection between mass incarceration and public health.

Reflecting on a recent visit to Cook County Jail, Pollack flags research by Theodore Hammett that found "[o]ne-fifth of all Americans living with HIV, one-third of all Americans infected with hepatitis C, and forty percent of all Americans living with tuberculosis disease passed through correctional facilities in 1997." The population that passes through local prisons like the unconstitutional Cook County facility is especially vulnerable:

These inmates are especially hard to serve during their typically-brief incarcerations. Many have not seen a doctor in years. The same behaviors that land them in jail expose them to serious physical and mental health risks. When these issues go unaddressed in the correctional system, thousands of people quickly bring these problems back to their families and local communities. These physical and mental health problems frequently resurface when former inmates require emergency care—or when something worse happens.

Yet funding dedicated to protecting prisoners (and the communities to which they eventually re-enter) is often first on the chopping block for budget-strapped state and local governments. That's not surprising -- politicians rarely advocate for the rights of the incarcerated -- but it's dangerous public policy. Although Cook County's emphasis on early treatment was once strong, it's been thrown on the back burner in the past year. The results are frightening:

But Cook County is facing difficult budget times—ironically the increasing burden of corrections and safety-net medical care being two main sources of budget hemorrhage. The county made an $800,000 budget cut that curtailed the screening of perhaps 100,000 inmates every year. No one can say how many infections will go undetected or will be spread because of this policy—the answer is: many.