The field of correctional (carceral) medicine is based on a distinct body of knowledge that integrates clinical, administrative, and leadership competencies that address the systems-based health and health care needs of incarcerated people. While physicians in this field engage in the provision of primary, emergency, and preventive care, correctional (carceral) medicine requires the ability to ensure that the full scope of patients’ health needs are addressed in complex environments and situations that are unlike those commonly encountered in specialty- and subspecialty-based graduate medical education programs.

Correctional (carceral) medicine fellowship programs include experiential and didactic education that ensures the attainment of the ACGME Core Competencies with respect to the provision of health care in correctional facilities, while working with patients, staff members, and others to improve health outcomes. Consistent with the Quintuple Aim, ACGME-accredited Sponsoring Institution-based fellowships in correctional (carceral) medicine are expected to follow an approach to health care quality and safety that optimizes the improvement of population health, the experience of people who are incarcerated and detained, and practitioner well-being, while maximizing value in health care spending. (Sponsoring Institution-based fellowship programs provide educational experiences that promote the integration of clinical, administrative, and leadership competencies for physicians addressing broad health care needs in the US.)

Under faculty member supervision, fellows obtain practical experience in collaboration with corrections officers and other staff members who are responsible for the custody and safety of incarcerated individuals. ACGME accreditation of correctional (carceral) medicine fellowships ensures standardized expectations for learning environments that provide an appropriate context for physicians’ education. Programs may provide fellows with opportunities to develop skills in a range of participating sites that include, but are not limited to, prisons, jails, detention centers, specialized correctional facilities, hospitals, and community-based centers that serve incarcerated people.

Correctional (carceral) medicine physicians improve care through their ability to support the health of patients as they move through carceral systems. Fellows are provided with educational experiences in locations outside of correctional facilities, such as courts of law, government agencies, or community organizations, that build their knowledge of social, policy, and legal contexts for the care they provide, and prepare them to participate in transitional support for patients as they re-enter communities.

The educational program in correctional (carceral) medicine must be 12 months in length.