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Abstract: 

In a previous Correctional Health Care Report (CHCR) issue (Vol. 7, Issue 2, January/February 2006), I commented on the impact of a recent ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court on the future of correctional peer review. In a nutshell, and as discussed in much more depth in a previous article (and follow-up article) by noted correctional jurist William Rold, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in Agster V. Maricopa County, 406 F.3d 1091, (9th Cir. 2005), ordered the Health Authority at the Maricopa County Jail in Arizona to turn over to a plaintiff all pertinent mortality review findings. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, thus affirming the lower court verdict. As a practicing correctional physician and medical director of correctional systems for more than 20 years, I always believed in the educational power of honest peer review, including mortality reviews.

Keywords: Peer Review Model, Agster, Oral Peer Review

Affiliations:  1: Georgia Department of Corrections.