Dr. Homer Venters, former head of Correctional Health Services in New York City, will speak at Harvard Law School on Tuesday, April 16, 2019. As the head of health care for 9,000 inmates at Rikers Island, he witnessed first hand the poor health conditions that led to disease and death for incarcerated peoples. In his recent book, Life and Death in Rikers Island, Dr. Venters describes these scenes and relays his view of the many institutional barriers that limit access to health care inside prison walls, as well as prison practices like solitary confinement that harm health. We will discuss these issues, including transparency and accountability for deaths, injuries, and sexual assault in jail, with an eye toward the role of policy advocacy and litigation in New York and around the nation.
This talk is co-sponsored by the Harvard Health Law Society, the Petrie-Flom Center, and the Center for Health Law & Policy Innovation.