Tuberculosis (TB) is a serious health threat, especially for people who live or work in correctional facilities — prisons and jails, where people live and work close together. It is hard to find, treat and control there, and facility staff should work with TB programs to stop it spreading.
In 2023, 324 people aged 15 or older with TB disease — 3.6% of all U.S. cases — were living in a correctional facility when diagnosed.
Who is more likely to be exposed
People who live or used to live in large group settings where TB is more common, such as correctional facilities, and people who work in them. More: Exposure to Tuberculosis.
What "correctional health" covers
Correctional health is the health and well-being of adults and juveniles who are justice system-involved — from arrest, through detention or incarceration, to their return to the community (reentry). Justice system-involved means anyone now or ever arrested or incarcerated, including people on parole or probation. It also covers their families and communities, and facility administrators and staff.
People entering a facility may have had little medical care before, and so no early diagnosis of inactive TB (latent TB infection) or active TB disease.
- Inactive TB: no illness, no symptoms, and no spread to others — but untreated, it can become active disease at any time.
- Active TB disease can spread and can be deadly.
Preventing, finding and treating active TB early stops the spread and protects everyone inside.
Why the risk is higher
Health. Some people in prison or jail are more likely to use substances — excess alcohol, non-injecting and injecting drug use — a risk factor for TB disease and a barrier to diagnosis and treatment. A weakened immune system, from certain medicines or conditions such as diabetes, cancer or HIV, raises the risk of active disease after infection.
The buildings. Facilities are places of close physical proximity, and may have poor air flow, shared airspace and overcrowding — conditions that help diseases, TB among them, spread.
Transfers. Moving people in and out of crowded, poorly ventilated facilities raises the risk of spread. It also interrupts treatment, which for inactive TB or TB disease can take several months. Facilities should work with each other and with health departments so people finish treatment even after a transfer or release.
Prevention and control
Good measures protect people inside and the community outside:
- a TB screening program;
- treatment for inactive TB and active TB disease;
- a thorough, efficient contact investigation whenever active TB disease is diagnosed.
Facilities should plan how they will find and treat TB disease to prevent outbreaks, and work closely with their local or state TB program, which staff can contact for guidance.
Resources
- Questions and Answers About TB — a booklet on inactive TB and TB disease
- Think. Test. Treat TB — raising awareness of inactive TB
- Tuberculosis Data — CDC's TB statistics
Sources
Based on "TB Risk and People Who Live or Work in Correctional Facilities," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, December 9, 2024; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The source's stock photograph is not reproduced.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.cdc.gov
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