Health & Justice

BACKGROUND: Security prisoners in Israel are those imprisoned due to offenses involving harming state security or from nationalistic motivations. On the one hand, they are accused of a serious criminal offense that harmed state security, while on the other hand they have a right to healthcare like any human being. According to the Theory of Planned Behavior, an attitude is one of three components that predict a behavior intention. The study aims to evaluate the attitudes of nurses, paramedics, and medics toward security prisoners, and to identify factors that could be related to their attitudes...

BACKGROUND: Criminalization of drugs in the United States (US) has extensive consequences for people who use drugs (PWUD). Incarceration and substance use overlap with 65% of the US prison population meeting substance use disorder (SUD) criteria. Exposure to the criminal-legal system negatively impacts the health of PWUD. PTSD is commonly comorbid with SUDs, and exposure to restrictive housing (RH) during incarceration may worsen mental health. Because PWUD are disproportionately incarcerated, experiences occurring during incarceration, such as RH, may contribute to the development or exacerbation of PTSD and SUDs...

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BACKGROUND: As populations age globally, cooperation across multi-sector stakeholders is increasingly important to service older persons, particularly those with high and complex health and social needs. One such population is older people entering society after a period of incarceration in prison. The 'ageing epidemic' in prisons worldwide has caught the attention of researchers, governments and community organisations, who identify challenges in servicing this group as they re-enter the community...

BACKGROUND: A previous scoping review of legal-involved veterans' health and healthcare (1947-2017) identified studies and their limitations. Given the influx of literature published recently, this study aimed to update the previous review and map articles to the Veterans-Sequential Intercept Model (V-SIM) - a conceptual model used by key partners, including Veterans Health Administration, veteran advocates, criminal justice practitioners, and local governments to identify intercept points in the criminal legal system where resources and programming can be provided...

BACKGROUND: The extraordinary growth in women's incarceration over the past several decades has resulted in calls for expansion of research into their unique needs and experiences, including those related to pregnancy and perinatal care. However, while research into the health outcomes of women who are incarcerated while pregnant has grown, research on women's custodial and perinatal care patterns has remained nearly non-existent. Here, we sought to describe (1) the characteristics of the population of women who came to be incarcerated in a state prison system during pregnancy and (2) the characteristics of women's custodial and perinatal care patterns during and after incarceration...

BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests that women who are incarcerated desire access to contraception while incarcerated, and that this need is not currently being met. Our objective in this study was to explore the perspectives and experiences of women in prisons regarding contraception and contraception access using data from focus groups with women in a provincial prison. We analyzed focus group data collected in a provincial prison in Ontario, Canada using content analysis and a constructivist epistemology...

The COVID-19 pandemic posed an unprecedented threat to the mental health of youth due to its attendant, drastic changes in everyday life brought about by restrictions such as social distancing and the cancelation of in-person classes. Although numerous articles have discussed the impact of the pandemic on youths' mental health, most of them have been opinion pieces. This study used state-wide empirical data to quantify the direct and indirect effect of the pandemic on the mental health of confined youth, a vulnerable social group that is rarely represented in school survey data...

BACKGROUND: Given high rates of substance use among justice-involved youth, justice systems have attempted to monitor use through drug screening (DS) procedures. However, there is discretion in deciding who is screened for substance use, as not every youth who encounters the system is screened. The aim of the current study was to examine factors associated with selection for and results of oral DS among justice-involved youth assigned to probation to better inform potential DS policy...

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic produced system-level changes within the criminal legal system and community-based substance use disorder (SUD) treatment system with impacts on recovery efforts. This study examines rural and urban clinicians' perspectives of COVID-19 on SUD treatment delivery for people on community supervision. METHODS: Virtual qualitative interviews were conducted between April and October 2020 with 25 community supervision clinicians employed by Kentucky's Department of Corrections (DOC), who conduct assessments and facilitate community-based treatment linkages for individuals on probation or parole...

BACKGROUND: Currently, there are more than two million people in prisons or jails, with nearly two-thirds meeting the criteria for a substance use disorder. Following these patterns, overdose is the leading cause of death following release from prison and the third leading cause of death during periods of incarceration in jails. Traditional quantitative methods analyzing the factors associated with overdose following incarceration may fail to capture structural and environmental factors present in specific communities...

BACKGROUND: The mortality rate among people under probation supervision in the community is greater than that among incarcerated people and that among the general population. However, there is limited research on the distinct vulnerabilities and risks underlying the causes of death in this population. In this retrospective cohort study, we examined the individual and criminal justice-related factors associated with different causes of death. Factors were assessed in relation to the type of supervision, distinguishing between those under post-custodial release and those serving a community sentence...

BACKGROUND: The wide availability of routine screening with Papanicolaou (Pap) tests and vaccinations against human papillomavirus has resulted in a decline in rates of cervical cancer. As with other diseases, however, disparities in incidence and mortality persist. Cervical cancer, is found more often, at later stages, and has worse outcomes in people who live in rural areas, identify as Black or Hispanic, and in people who are incarcerated. Studies report 4-5 times higher rates of cervical cancer incidence in people detained in jails and prisons than in community-based samples...

BACKGROUND: Improving family engagement in juvenile justice (JJ) system behavioral health services is a high priority for JJ systems, reform organizations, and family advocacy groups across the United States. Family-driven care (FDC) is a family engagement framework used by youth-serving systems to elevate family voice and decision-making power at all levels of the organization. Key domains of a family-driven system of care include: 1) identifying and involving families in all processes, 2) informing families with accurate, understandable, and transparent information, 3) collaborating with families to make decisions and plan treatments, 4) responding to family diversity and inclusion, 5) partnering with families to make organizational decisions and policy changes, 6) providing opportunities for family peer support, 7) providing logistical support to help families overcome barriers to participation, and 8) addressing family health and functioning...

BACKGROUND: Upon reintegration into society, formerly incarcerated individuals (FIIs) experience chronic financial stress due to prolonged unemployment, strained social relationships, and financial obligations. This study examined whether marriage and perceived social status can mitigate financial stress, which is deleterious to the well-being of FIIs. We also assessed whether sociodemographic factors influenced financial stress across marital status. We used cross-sectional data from 588 FIIs, collected in the 2023 Survey of Racism and Public Health...

BACKGROUND: A growing body of research has called attention to limitations to reproductive autonomy in both women who are socially disadvantaged and in those who have had contact with the criminal legal (CL) system. However, it is unclear whether CL system contact influences contraceptive use patterns and how these processes unfold. We utilize a mixed-methods approach to investigate whether history of arrest is associated with receipt of contraceptive counseling, use of long-term contraception, sterilization, and subsequent desire for reversal of sterilization...

BACKGROUND: The societal costs associated with juvenile delinquency and reoffending are high, emphasising the need for effective prevention strategies. A promising approach is Youth-Initiated Mentoring (YIM). In YIM, professionals support youths in selecting a non-parental adult from within their social network as their mentor. However, until now, little (quasi-)experimental research has been conducted on YIM in the field of juvenile delinquency. We will examine the effectiveness, working mechanisms, and implementation of YIM as a selective prevention strategy for juvenile delinquents...

BACKGROUND: To promote parent-child reunification, family dependency drug courts (FDDCs) facilitate substance use disorder treatment for people whose children have been removed due to parental substance use. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted FDDC operations, forcing FDDCs to quickly adapt to new circumstances. Although existing research has examined COVID-19 impacts on adult drug courts and civil dependency courts, studies have yet to examine the impact of COVID-19 on FDDCs specifically...

BACKGROUND: Community-based harm reduction programming is widely recognized as an effective strategy for reducing the increased risks for and spread of HIV, HCV, and for reducing the growing rate of overdose deaths among people who use drugs (PWUD). PWUD in the United States (US) are a highly justice-involved population, also at increased risk for law enforcement interaction, arrest, and incarceration. These risks compound and interact in the context of criminalization and law enforcement surveillance...

BACKGROUND: The number of older people in prison is growing. As a result, there will also be more prisoners suffering from dementia. The support and management of this population is likely to present multiple challenges to the prison system. OBJECTIVES: To examine the published literature on the care and supervision of people living in prison with dementia and on transitioning into the community; to identify good practice and recommendations that might inform the development of prison dementia care pathways...