Abstract:
The U.S. penal system is increasingly being cast as an engine for reinstituting Jim Crow, that 19th century condition of near slavery for southern Blacks. In this view, the large numbers of men of color who are behind bars or on parole in this country involve more than just "folks who've been sent away." Men and women returning from a period of incarceration are creating a large and growing American underclass. Their marginal status in their communities has public health consequences that are particularly problematic for our national HIV/AIDS pandemic. This lecture will explore those consequences and will propose a set of interventions that would improve the health status of men caught up in this nation's system of mass incarceration.
Lecturer:
Robert E. Fullilove, Ed.D. is the Associate Dean for Community and Minority Affairs and Professor of Clinical Sociomedical Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University. He currently co-directs the Community Research Group at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University. He is also the co-director of the MPH degree program, Urbanism and the Built Environment, in the department of Sociomedical Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health.
Dr. Fullilove has published numerous articles on minority health with a particular focus on HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, as well as papers on such topics as mathematics and science education. From 1995 to 2001, he served on the Board of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at the Institute of Medicine (IOM) at the National Academy of Sciences. Since 1996, he has served on five IOM study committees that have produced reports on a variety of topics including substance abuse and addiction, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and damp indoor spaces and health. In 2003 he was designated a National Associate of the National Academies of Science, an honor bestowed by the Academies for those who have made “significant contributions” to its work. In 1998 he was appointed to the Advisory Committee on HIV and STD Prevention (ACHSP) at the Centers for Disease Control, and in July, 2000, he became the committee’s chair, serving in that capacity until fall 2004. Finally, between 2004 and 2007, he served on the National Advisory Council for the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health [NIH].
Dr. Fullilove serves on the editorial boards of the journals Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and the Journal of Public Health Policy. He is fluent in French and is a frequent lecturer at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers [The National Conservatory of Arts and Trades] in Paris. He has twice been awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award from the graduating class at the Mailman School of Public Health, and in May 2002 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Bank Street College of Education.11)
Barrister Club, part of the Moritz College of Law
