The History of the Center

In 1986, as Physician in Chief at the Department of Medicine at Miriam Hospital, Charles C.J. Carpenter, MD was approached by the Rhode Island Department of Corrections (RIDOC) to provide medical care for two inmates who were known to be infected with the HIV virus. Dr. Carpenter visited the Adult Correctional Institute (ACI), and found that the patients had been placed in isolation, wearing orange jumpsuits with biological hazard stickers on them.

Concerned that prisoners with HIV/AIDS were not receiving the medical care that they needed, Dr. Carpenter began visiting the ACI to treat patients with increasing frequency. In 1988, the Rhode Island Department of Corrections began mandatory HIV testing of all inmates, and Dr. Carpenter made an agreement that Miriam Hospital and Brown University doctors would take care of all prisoners found to be infected with HIV. Thus began the official collaboration between the Immunology Center at The Miriam Hospital and the RIDOC. This partnership has grown substantially since then due in large part to the efforts of Dr. Carpenter and Dr. Timothy Flanigan, who arrived at the Miriam Hospital in 1991. Read the full story.

For over twenty years, Miriam physicians, nurses, social workers and allied staff have provided care for HIV infected patients both during their incarceration and in the community. While the initial focus of the collaboration between The Miriam Hospital and the Rhode Island Department of Corrections was focused on HIV care, it has now expanded to include hepatitis B and C, treatment of substance abuse and now a full range of health issues pertaining to the Rhode Island correctional population.

Along the way, physicians and staff at the Miriam Hospital Immunology Center, in collaboration with the RIDOC, have amassed considerable experience and expertise in health issues pertaining to prisoners and affected communities. The last three Medical Program Directors at the Department of Corrections have been trained at Brown Medical School. Many other trainees have gone on to provide care for patients in Rhode Island prisons, as well as prisons in other states, including Massachusetts, Connecticut and Georgia.

Miriam physicians, nurses and collaborators have published over sixty articles specific to correctional healthcare in peer-reviewed journals, and have been recognized as leaders in the field of correctional medicine. In addition, they have published hundreds of papers in peer-reviewed journals in the overlapping areas of infectious diseases and mental health. Subsequently, they have helped set the national standard for HIV and hepatitis diagnosis and treatment, and continue to explore innovative approaches in the management of substance abuse and harm reduction.

In 2005, Josiah (Jody) Rich M.D., M.P.H., and Scott Allen, M.D., saw the need to incorporate The Miriam Hospital's prison health initiatives into a Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights. Dr. Rich, Division of Infectious Diseases at the Miriam Hospital, and Dr. Allen, attending physician at the Eleanor Slater Hospital and former medical director for the Rhode Island Department of Corrections, recognized that the Brown community has achieved a critical mass of faculty involved in the care, education and research on incarcerated populations, and they conceived of The Center as a means of fostering more effective, cohesive and competitive functioning as a group. According to Dr. Rich, “the growth of The Center will allow us to be more competitive at bringing in funding for our three-fold mission of teaching, care and research in correctional healthcare.”

The Center will also be used as a means to articulate policy recommendations and to promote advocacy on behalf of prisoner health and human rights issues.