Authors describe jail healthcare staffing among jails in the southeast. Jails annually incarcerate millions of people with health problems, yet jail healthcare services have not been well described.

In an effort to address correctional staffing challenges and
increase job satisfaction among staff working in Tennessee’s
jails, the Tennessee Corrections Institute (TCI) partnered with
researchers from Austin Peay State University (APSU) and the
Crime and Justice Institute (CJI) to conduct interviews with a
sample of jail staff across the state.

Although jails are both common and consequential, affecting millions of individuals annually, they are a relatively understudied aspect of the criminal justice system. In this review, we first document the prevalence of jail incarceration, highlighting how jail incarceration has risen in tandem with the more commonly examined prison incarceration.