From Chaos to Coercion: Detention and the Control of Tuberculosis

In the 1980s and early 1990s, New York City experienced an unprecedented outbreak of tuberculosis. Inadequate healthcare services, an increase in social alienation of the poor, and the emergence of drug-resistant strains led city health officials to respond with draconian policies to ensure compliance, including the use of detention of non-infectious individuals—sometimes for up to two years—that violated individual civil liberties. The New York TB epidemic has since been controlled, but th...