David H. Cloud is a postdoctoral researcher in the Bellwether Collaborative for Health Justice (BCHJ). He is a mixed-methodologist who applies social-ecological theory, law, human rights, harm reduction, and environmental justice to:
- Confront how carceral systems imperil the health of individuals, families, and communities.
- Mobilize rapid interventions to reduce harm to currently and formerly incarcerated people.
- Promote life-affirming, anti-racist, and anti-carceral solutions to address the overdose crisis and interrelated health inequalities.
He co-edited a special issue of AJPH in 2019 that examined mass incarceration as a socio-structural driver of health inequities. He has published papers in the areas of drug policy, harm reduction, health disparities and human rights in prisons, and the implications of Medicaid policy for improving healthcare access for people entangled in the criminal legal system. Dr. Cloud has published papers on drug policy, harm reduction interventions, and the implications of Medicaid policy for people exposed to incarceration. More recently, he published the first paper linking extreme heat to suicide watch incidents in Louisiana prisons and is increasingly focused on addressing climatological hazards in carceral settings. Dr. Cloud is also a national expert on the harms of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons and serves on the Steering Committee for the National Unlock the Box Campaign.
His work on these topics has been featured in The New Yorker, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, NPR, and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, among other media outlets.
He was previously the Director of Research for Amend at the University of California, San Francisco, and a Senior Associate at the Vera Institute of Justice in New York City. He has a PhD in Social, Behavioral, and Health Education Sciences from Emory University, a JD from Villanova Law School, and an MPH from Columbia University.