Health & Justice

BACKGROUND: Training law enforcement officers (LEOs) to administer naloxone is a recommended strategy to reduce overdose deaths in the United States. To achieve this, an evidence-based and scalable naloxone training curriculum that is easy to use and readily scalable is needed. Convenient web-based training is a flexible method for delivering educational interventions particularly for LEOs who have irregular or shifting schedules. This study examined the effectiveness of a comprehensive web-based naloxone training that was created in partnership with LEOs on their knowledge, confidence, and attitudes regarding naloxone...

Legal problems encompass issues requiring resolution through the justice system. This social risk factor creates barriers in accessing services and increases risk of poor health outcomes. A systematic review of the peer-reviewed English-language health literature following the PRISMA guidelines sought to answer the question, how has the concept of patients' "legal problems" been operationalized in healthcare settings? Eligible articles reported the measurement or screening of individuals for legal problems in a United States healthcare or clinical setting...

BACKGROUND: Release from prison is characterized by discontinuity of healthcare services and results in poor health outcomes, including an increase in mortality. Institutions capable of addressing this gap in care seldom collaborate in comprehensive, data-driven transition of care planning. This study harnesses information from a data exchange between correctional facilities and community-based healthcare agencies in Colorado to model a care continuum after release from prison. METHODS: We merged records from Denver Health (DH), an urban safety-net healthcare system, and the Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC), for people released from January 1 to June 30, 2021...

There is increasing international interest in the use of police drug diversion schemes that offer people suspected of minor drug-related offences an educative or therapeutic intervention as an alternative to criminalisation. While there have been randomised trials of some such schemes for their effects on reducing offending, with generally positive results, less is known about the health outcomes, and what works, for whom, in what circumstances and why. This protocol reports on a realist evaluation of police drug diversion in England that has been coproduced by a team of academic, policing, health, and service user partners...

With increasing numbers of older prisoners, effective strategies for preventing and treating age-associated diseases, such as cognitive disorders, are needed. As pharmacological therapies are limited, non-pharmacological interventions are increasingly recognized as potential treatment strategies. One approach is cognitive training (CT). However, no study has investigated CT in the prison setting. Thus, this one-arm feasibility trial aims to analyze the feasibility of (i) the study protocol and (ii) the implementation of multimodal CT for older prisoners...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: The provision of contraceptive care for incarcerated individuals has been largely inconsistent and has contributed to, at best, inadequate care, and at worst reproductive abuses, violence, and coercion. While previous research has identified strategies to remedy known issues, to date, very few recommendations have been implemented across the carceral system. To address this, we conducted a systematic review of policy and practice recommendations to improve contraceptive care to reproductive-aged, incarcerated individuals in the United States...

BACKGROUND: People being held in prison are particularly vulnerable to Covid-19 infection, as places of detention are high-risk environments for spread of infection. Due to this risk, many prisons across the globe introduced measures to reduce the risk of Covid-19 transmission. The pandemic changed almost all aspects of prison life, including prison healthcare provision. We undertook a scoping review to understand what is known about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the receipt and delivery of prison healthcare...

Probation officers are tasked with supervising the largest number of people living with mental illnesses in the criminal legal system, with an estimated 16-27% of individuals on probation identified as having a mental health condition. While academic research has recently focused on building the evidence base around the prototypical model of specialty mental health probation, less focus has been directed to the individual components of specialized mental health caseloads and other strategies agencies use to supervise people with mental illnesses...

BACKGROUND: Understanding the health conditions of those under carceral control is often made difficult due to lack of access to data. Yet, as has been made clear during the COVID-19 pandemic, is that data is essential to understand the scope of disease and how best to allocate resources. To better understand the needs of criminal legal oriented research and non-profit organizations, we interviewed stakeholders to better understand how they use existing data, what data they lack, and what data they would like to have to optimally assess the health of people who are incarcerated...

The COVID-19 pandemic inspired calls for rapid decarceration of prisons and jails to slow the spread of disease in a high-risk congregate setting. Due to the rarity of intentionally-decarcerative policies, little is known about the effects of rapid decarceration on individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) substance use disorder (SUD), a population who receive many services via the criminal legal system (CLS). We conducted interviews with 13 key informants involved in CLS in San Francisco, CA to better understand the implication of the decarcerative policies put into practice in early 2020...

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted individuals in carceral facilities - both incarcerated people and staff. Vaccination is an important tool in reducing the risk of COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and death. While the importance of promoting vaccination is clear, there are considerable barriers to doing so. This study aims to better understand: (1) why individuals chose to receive the COVID-19 vaccine; (2) why individuals were hesitant to vaccinate; (3) what motivators might influence a person's decision to get vaccinated; and (4) what sources of information about COVID-19 vaccination people trust...

BACKGROUND: Policies for next-of-kin (NOK) notification and disposition of remains surrounding death are unclear across the United States' (US) carceral systems. The goal of this study was to collect data on carceral system policies pertaining to NOK notification and disposition of remains for individuals who are incarcerated. We collected publicly available operational policies for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 50 state prison systems, and the Washington D...

BACKGROUND: Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is prevalent at a higher rate in correctional settings than in the general population. Treatment of ADHD in this environment is challenging as stimulants, the most common treatment for ADHD, require cautious prescribing in the context of frequent substance use disorders (SUD) and diversion in the institutional setting. In addition, both pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment approaches require significant staff resources...

BACKGROUND: Some murders are committed under the influence of a psychotic state resulting from a mental disorder, mainly schizophrenia. According to the law in many countries, people with mental disorders do not have criminal responsibility. They are defined as not guilty due to insanity (insanity defense) and therefore cannot be punished. In Israel, in recent years, more lawyers are requesting psychiatric opinions for the murder defendants they represent. This study aims to explore the differences between two groups of murderers: individuals who committed murder and were found not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI) and individuals who committed murder and were found responsible and guilty...

BACKGROUND: Previous studies about health in prisons conclude that incarceration has detrimental consequences for physical and mental health. It is associated with weight gain, decreased fitness, increased cardiovascular risks, and increased risks for mental illnesses, like depression and anxiety. This article examines the relationships between sports activity and health developments among prisoners. We analyze data from the Hessian Prison Sports Study, conducted in 12 prisons of the federal state of Hesse, Germany...

Incarceration rates have increased exponentially among women, and racial disparities in justice involvement persist. Coupled with disparities in HIV in the US South that begin early in the life course, it is important to explicate the relationship between justice involvement, HIV-related risk (such as illicit drug use and sexual risk), and service needs for young African American women. This study examined the association of previous arrest, biological and self-reported HIV-related risk, and reported service needs at baseline among 646 African American women aged 18 to 25 who were recruited as part of an HIV-risk reduction trial...

Survivors of sexual abuse and their families seek help from criminal law enforcement agencies and health professionals to obtain justice and health care. Many communities have implemented multi-professional collaborative models so that the victim's well-being is assured and the truth is established. However, there is a general lack of evidence on how to best articulate these teams with the healthcare professionals caring for the survivors.Therefore, this Scoping Review was conducted in order to analyze and to map the barriers and facilitators of the relationship between health professionals and the criminal investigation team in the care of survivors of sexual abuse...

INTRODUCTION: Health and social service organizations, including the emergency department (ED) and public assistance programs, constitute a social safety net that may serve as an "access point" for substance use treatment utilization. Racialization of substance use disorder (SUD) and gender disparities in access to treatment contribute to differences in health and social service utilization, including substance use treatment for Black women. We therefore explored the role of various access points in facilitating the use of substance use treatment among Black women with substance use and involvement in the criminal justice system...

BACKGROUND: For youth involved in the juvenile justice (JJ) system, caregiver involvement and engagement in the system is crucial for youth development and outcomes of JJ cases; however, there are challenges to establishing positive/productive partnerships between caregivers and JJ representatives. The current project examines perspectives of caregivers and JJ personnel regarding facilitators and barriers to establishing JJ-caregiver partnerships, as well as their perceptions of the use of a caregiver navigator program to support caregivers of system-involved youth...