(Abstract Only)

This paper addresses two basic questions. First, it examines whether incarceration has a lasting impact on health functioning. Secondly, because blacks are more likely than whites to be exposed to the negative effects of the penal system--including fractured social bonds, reduced labor market prospects, and high levels of infectious disease--it considers whether the penal system contributes to racial health disparities. Using multiple analytical procedures and data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the paper is the first to empirically demonstrate that incarceration exerts lasting effects on health, and to show that racial differences in health between whites and blacks are explained largely by racial differences in rates of imprisonment.