Mass Incarceration and Public Health at the Undergraduate Level: Course Design and Rationale for Bachelor of Science in Public Health Programs

Abstract

Schools and programs of public health are appropriately positioned to advance student learning opportunities on structural drivers of health inequities, including mass incarceration. Although there are often undergraduate-level public health courses about general topics such as health inequities or social determinants of health, courses on the intersection of public health and mass incarceration at the baccalaureate level are rare. This article describes the design, development, and implementation of a baccalaureate-level public health course focused on mass incarceration to afford the public health workforce the opportunity to gain foundational exposure to the historical and structural forces influencing social drivers of inequality and the critical role of the discipline of public health to address and tackle such inequities using evidence-based approaches.