Incarcerated individuals are more likely to experience adverse health outcomes as compared to non-incarcerated individuals. These disparities are greater for female incarcerated individuals, due to a lack of funding, screening, and awareness of issues important to women’s health. 

Incarcerated women are more likely to suffer adverse menstrual and reproductive health outcomes, and are four times more likely to develop cervical cancer than non-incarcerated women. This is partially due to the lack of access to healthcare in correctional facilities, which results in missed or infrequent screenings. Between 0-58% of incarcerated women have regular mammogram screenings. Many incarcerated women lack health literacy and adequate health education, and may not be aware that they are not being screened sufficiently. This increases their risk of adverse health outcomes. 

Our project will involve developing feasible, evidence-informed recommendations to address this problem, and will follow the PERIE framework: Problem, Etiology, Recommendations, Implementation, and Evaluation. We will conduct a systematic literature review to inform our recommendations, which will allow us to utilize evidence from other studies and gain insight into useful strategies that have been effective in other settings and populations. 

Incarcerated women in California are at a higher risk of breast and cervical cancer, and have higher mortality rates due to the lack of healthcare access and education. Developing recommendations to help improve these rates is vital when addressing health disparities, especially for outcomes with effective screening measures in place.