Site Search

HARTFORD, CT -- Connecticut has repeatedly considered "anti-prison gerrymandering" legislation during the past decade – in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2016 – but that legislation has failed to pass.  A 2013 report by the Prison Policy initiative and Common Cause found that almost half of the state’s prison population comes from the state’s five largest cities, but almost two-thirds of the state’s prison cells are located in just five small towns – Cheshire, East Lyme, Enfield, Somers, and Suffield.

HARTFORD, CT -- Blog post by by Garth Graham, M.D., MPH, is a leading authority on social determinants of health. President of the Aetna Foundation since 2013 and Vice President of Community Health for Aetna, Inc., Dr. Graham is a former deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under the Obama and Bush administrations where he also ran the Office of Minority Health.

For the first time in the history of the United States, today’s youth are expected to have a shorter life-span than their parents. With medical, scientific and technological advances, this notion seems dumbfounding. But when we step away from the science and technology and take a deeper look at our communities, you can find the root causes. Access to healthy food, public safety and environmental factors are all driving forces behind this decline in longevity. These social determinants of health are becoming increasingly influential to our health . . .