Table 1 Selected interview questions

Health Impacts of Incarceration

How do you think incarceration has impacted your health, if it has at all?

Healthcare needs

What are health issues for which you’ve seen a professional?

I am going to ask you to think back to the first few weeks after you were released from prison.

What thoughts, if any, did you have about your health?

Healthcare navigation and decision making

Thinking back to the last time you were released from prison or jail: if you have seen a medical professional since then can you tell me about how that happened and what it was like?

I’ve heard that prior to release from prison/jail you may get help enrolling in insurance and be given information about resources, but you have to make the phone calls and appointments yourself.

Did this happen for you?

How do you decide when it’s time to go to a health care provider?

Have you ever been concerned about how you would be treated at a clinic by staff and providers?

Barriers and facilitators to care

Have you ever decided that you needed care, but didn’t go? Tell me about the reasons you didn’t go.

If a clinic is hoping to see people within a month of being released from prison/jail, with everything else that is going on in this time period, what might help support people to go to a clinic for a check-up?

Experiences with healthcare

Do you think your incarceration has had any impact on your care at your current clinic?

Besides having a good relationship with a regular health care provider, are there ways that the clinic makes it easy for you to follow up or creates a space that you want to keep going back to?

Advice for care

If you were the one in charge and could design the perfect clinic for people coming out of incarceration, what would it be like? What would be the most important services for it to provide?

What advice would you give to staff who are working with individuals who have been incarcerated?