The University of Massachusetts Medical School launched the Academic and Health Policy Conference on Correctional Health in 2007, which attracted more than 200 participants from 20 states and 21 academic institutions. The success of this conference, and the conferences to follow, validated the need for academic-correctional health collaborations, as well as the need for increased support for criminal justice health care programs across the country.
To respond to these growing needs, the conference’s national advisory group conducted semi-structured interviews with academic correctional health leaders and a qualitative analysis of the findings. The results demonstrated consistent trends, with key stakeholders and leaders confirming a need for an academic correctional health care consortium.
With support from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the Academic Consortium on Criminal Justice Health (ACCJH) was launched in 2012, and officially became a member organization in 2014. ACCJH now represents 10 founding institutions and continues to grow with the success of its conference and collaborative achievements.
The ACCJH-hosted Academic and Health Policy Conference on Correctional Health continues to be among the most successful criminal justice health conferences in the nation, and attracts nearly 300 attendees every year. In 2017, the conference hosted speakers and participants from 31 states, 6 countries, and 158 institutions.