Massachusetts prisoners have some of the highest rates of infectious disease in the country, according to a study slated to be released next week.

Massachusetts inmates have the seventh-highest rate of HIV infections in the nation, according to a published report that cites a study from the Massachusetts Public Health Association. The published report indicates that 44 percent of women and 27 percent of men were diagnosed with Hepatitis C, according to the study.

Disease specialists theorized that the higher rate of intravenous drug use in the Northeast could be part of the cause. Researchers and others have called for health care improvements for parolees so that they will not infect the communities they return to after serving their sentences.

"You just can't take a group of people and segregate them off to a no-man's land when you know within a period of time they're coming back," said Lyn Levy, executive director of Span, a pro-inmate organization. "So it behooves us to provide prisoners when they're in custody and when they get out with consistent treatment."

Much of the problem is related to substance abuse, Dr. Alfred DeMaria, the state's director of communicable disease control, said.

"Substance abuse is clearly the predominant risk factor," DeMaria said. "And if you look at the pattern of imprisonment in this country over the years, drug crimes are drawing longer and longer sentences."

The Department of Correction has made steps to upgrade care, said Justin Latini, a department spokesman.

A pilot program run by the Hampden County House of Corrections, in Western Massachusetts, links inmates with a medical team from a community health center in the prisoner's neighborhood. The team oversees inmates' care throughout their sentence and when they are released. Studies by the Hampden corrections system show that 8- percent of inmates with chronic conditions continue top get treatment from their neighborhood health center once they are freed.