Health and Justice最新文献

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) has indicated that the absence of prison health poses a threat to public health, making it important to safeguard access to quality healthcare for incarcerated populations. Although several studies have explored the quality of care in prisons, there is a dearth of empirical evidence on the perspectives of incarcerated individuals. This study investigated incarcerated individuals' perspectives and opinions on the general healthcare services in Ghanaian prisons.

Methods: Utilizing a qualitative approach, focus group discussions were conducted with 51 incarcerated individuals in five prisons sited in the Northern, Middle and Southern zones of Ghana. Thematic analysis following the tradition of Braun and Clarke was conducted. Four of the six constructs of the WHO Health Systems Framework - service delivery, health workforce, access to essential medicines, and leadership and guidance - were applied deductively to organise the data into themes and subthemes.

Results: Four themes were generated from the analysis: "Health service delivery", "Health workforce in prisons", "Access to essential medicines" and "Leadership; regulating healthcare services". Participants rated health services in prisons as below average compared to those available to the general population. The use of nurses as prescribers in prison infirmaries, though consistent with Ghana Health Service policy, seems to negatively influence prisoners' perceptions of the quality of the health workforce in prisons. Lack of basic equipment and essential medications at the infirmary for common endemic conditions such as malaria coupled with the bureaucratic processes required to access care outside of the prison also negatively affected incarcerated individuals' perceptions of the quality of health care.

Conclusions: Incarcerated individuals perceived that the quality of health services provided in prisons was inferior to that provided in the general population. Addressing challenges associated with the unavailability of essential drugs and equipment, improving the number of health staff, and addressing bottlenecks in accessing urgent care will enhance the experiences of incarcerated populations on the quality of care given.

Background and purpose: The number of older people in prisons is increasing across the globe. Many have poor physical and mental health, higher prevalence of head injury, cognitive impairment and dementia than found in community populations. Meeting the complex needs of this vulnerable group has become an increasing concern for prison and prison healthcare services. The aim of this multi method qualitative study was to investigate how men with diagnosed or suspected dementia were identified, assessed, and cared for in Scottish prisons. It also explored the lived experience of individuals being assessed for or diagnosed with dementia within four prisons. The data from twenty nine interviews was thematically analysed and used to collaboratively propose principles for dementia care in prison and present the resultant co-designed care pathway.

Results: At the time of data collection almost all the men known to have a dementia diagnosis or suspected dementia had complex health and social care needs, and some were living with advanced dementia. Prison healthcare staff reported taking a 'case by case' approach to their pre- and post-diagnostic care. Meeting these prisoner's needs was complicated by the absence of organisational leads for care of older adults or people with dementia and there was no pathway or model in place to guide staff. Prison healthcare teams often had difficulty accessing specialist community services to support diagnosis. There was a lack of dementia education and knowledge about how to provide pre and post diagnostic dementia care in this setting amongst staff. The findings arising from this research have informed the co-production of two important evidence informed innovations namely a Model of Care and a pre- and post-diagnostic Care Pathway.

Conclusion: This research adds insights critical to understanding the adequacy of current approaches to meeting dementia related needs within the prison setting. To our knowledge this paper offers the first co-produced evidence informed pre- and post- diagnostic dementia care pathway and model of care for use in prisons. These could serve as tools for change that could enable prison healthcare staff to deliver the right care, at the right time, by the right people, and provide an opportunity to assess risk and plan care for the future.

Background: The policy landscape around substance use has changed dramatically in the past decade, which may have affected the number and characteristics of treatment episodes for substance use disorder (SUD). In this study, we examine changes in the volume of SUD treatment referrals from the legal system and compare changes in the composition of substances used by referral source. We used publicly available discharge data on specialty SUD treatment episodes in the U.S. from 2015-2019 and included episodes involving adults that are discharged from specialty SUD treatment facilities during the study. We calculated descriptive statistics of specialty SUD treatment discharges in each year and aggregated across all years by referral source and substance(s) reported upon admission. To test differences by year and referral source, we conducted z-tests of proportions.

Results: The proportion of referrals to specialty SUD treatment from the legal system declined between 2015 and 2019 (p < 0.001). However, referrals from probation/parole and diversionary programs grew over time (p < 0.001) in number and proportion over time. Legal referrals were most often associated with alcohol or cannabis use, though referrals for these substances declined from 2015-2019.

Conclusions: This research lays the groundwork for future investigations to evaluate the effect of important policy changes on referral sources to specialty SUD treatment and the quality and outcomes associated with referrals to treatment from the legal system.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately impacted incarcerated populations, yet few studies have investigated the specific effects on incarcerated pregnant people. This study compares pregnant people's experiences of pregnancy and parenting in prison before and during the pandemic in order to explore the impacts of COVID-19 on this population.

Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with pregnant people at a state prison as part of a larger study on pregnant people's experiences during incarceration. Interviews explored participants' experiences and decision-making related to pregnancy and parenting while incarcerated. This secondary analysis compared interviews conducted between June 2019 and March 2020 (pre-COVID-19) to interviews conducted between June and November 2020 (during COVID-19). Interviews conducted during the pandemic included questions about the impact of COVID-19 on participants' experiences. Brief three and six-month follow-up interviews were conducted when possible.

Results: COVID-19 introduced new stressors and exacerbated preexisting stressors around participants' reproductive and parenting experiences. Three major themes emerged: 1) incarceration causes mental, emotional, and physical distress during pregnancy and parenting; 2) COVID-19 worsened conditions of incarceration, contributing to participants' distress; and 3) the introduction of quarantine protocols during the pandemic felt uniquely punitive for pregnant and postpartum people.

Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic was characterized as a major crisis and primary threat to public health, particularly for incarcerated individuals. Yet just as COVID-19 exacerbated preexisting disparities for marginalized, non-incarcerated communities, incarcerated pregnant people similarly described a "worsening" of already-intolerable conditions. The indiscriminate application of quarantine protocols for pregnant people reflects broader carceral logics of control that do not account for the wellbeing of pregnant and postpartum people and their infants, as evidenced by current practices of infant separation, a lack of support, and physically taxing living conditions.

Mozambique implemented in 2021 a formative assessment in 22 prisons to identify the operational and logistical needs for the second round of the Biobehavioral Survey (BBS). Barriers and facilitators that could be anticipated in conducting BBS in prisons, in preparation for implementation, was evaluated using semi-structured questionnaires administered to key informants (directors and other kind of managers staff). The data were cleaned and analyzed using Microsoft Excel, and the categorical variables were summarized by means of simple frequencies and percentages. In most prisons the current prison capacity far exceeds the theoretical capacity, 40.9% have a theoretical capacity of ≥ 50 inmates, 81.8% have inmates who exceed their theoretical capacity. In the country half of the prisons receive only male inmates, and only one female, 54.5% of the prisons visited have inmates under 18 years of age, 72.7% of the prisons had a private space available for the survey, the penitentiary establishments have the physical space for study; ensuring the safety of staff within the facilities; involvement of correctional officers and a clinical focal point. However, barriers such as time management due to prison opening hours, prison laws, restrictions, or permits for research may change without notice due to security, lockdowns, riots, or other situations that may hinder the implementation of research. The implementation of successive and regular rounds of BBS in different environments, contexts and populations constitute opportunities for generating information and indicators not always captured by programmatic data and not only as an opportunity for offering and making healthcare available in prison environments that in a routine context, but these populations normally have also not had equal opportunities. Currently, little is known about the implementation of a BBS in a correctional environment and only a few barriers can be anticipated, for Mozambique's context, these challenges and obstacles can be overcome through clear communication and collaboration with officials at all levels.

Background: Sexually transmitted infections are a significant, and growing, public health problem in this country - particularly among youth. Innovative strategies are needed to reduce the community burden of infection. Preliminary studies indicate that individuals involved in the criminal legal system have high rates of infection. While gaps exist in providing screening for incarcerated individuals, there are minimal efforts that have been initiated to screen individuals diverted from incarceration. In this study, we examined the STI risk profile and feasibility of screening for sexually transmitted infections for youth who were attending an alternative sentencing program after arrest for a minor offense. Youth were screened for chlamydia and gonorrhea using urine-based nucleic acid amplification tests.

Results: Of the 307 participants engaged in a program providing supportive services for criminal legal system involved youth at the Brooklyn Court House in New York City, 186 agreed to screening for sexually transmitted infections, and 8% were positive for chlamydia, gonorrhea, or both.

Conclusions: Screening programs within carceral settings have proven effective in identifying individuals with STIs. However, with policy changes diverting more young people away from incarceration and into community-based programs, innovative programs are needed to identify STIs among youth in these settings. Our findings indicate that it is feasible to conduct venue-based screening in these settings, and, doing so may identify youth in need of treatment and further evaluation.

Background: Roughly 24-36% of people who are incarcerated in the U.S. are formally diagnosed with opioid use disorder (OUD). Once released, individuals involved with the criminal legal system (CLS) face increased risks of return to use and fatality and are 129 times more likely to die from an overdose within the first two weeks of release compared to those without CLS involvement. People who are CLS-involved and who are seeking a recovery living environment can access temporary stable housing through recovery homes. However, entering a recovery home can be difficult due to fragmentation among recovery housing organizations and their non-uniform application and screening procedures. A navigation pilot program was implemented to provide clients with recovery home placement advice, pre-screening, and referrals in Cook County, IL. Existing research on recovery homes has rarely examined the importance of recovery housing navigation for enhancing service engagement among CLS-involved individuals receiving medications for OUD.

Methods: Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 22 clients and three recovery housing navigators as part of a program evaluation of the navigation program pilot. Qualitative software was used to organize and qualitatively analyze transcripts through several rounds of coding producing emergent themes, which were then triangulated, and expanded using navigator data.

Results: Clients seeking recovery home services reported multiple prior challenges securing safe and supportive recovery living environments. Despite low initial expectations, clients described their interactions with housing navigators in favorable terms and felt navigators worked with them effectively to identify and meet their housing and substance use needs in a timely manner. Clients also commented on their partnerships with the navigator throughout the process. Interactions with navigators also calmed fears of rejection many clients had previously experienced and still harbored about the process, which bolstered client-navigator relationships and client motivation to engage with additional services.

Conclusion: Evidence from this study suggests recovery home navigation can improve the speed and efficiency with which clients are connected to appropriate services that are tailored to their specific needs as well as increase client motivation to engage with a myriad of recovery services.

At the intersection of drug policy, the opioid crisis, and fragmented care systems, persons with opioid use disorder (OUD) in the United States are significantly vulnerable to contact with the criminal legal system (CLS). In CLS settings, provision of evidence-based treatment for OUD is variable and often secondary to punitive approaches. Linkage facilitation at every touch point along the CLS Sequential Intercept Model has potential to redirect persons with OUD into recovery-oriented systems of care, increase evidence-based OUD treatment connections, and therefore reduce CLS re-exposure risk. Research in this area is still nascent. Thus, this narrative review explores the state of the science on linkage facilitation across the varied CLS contexts, including general barriers, facilitators, and opportunities for using linkage facilitation for OUD treatment and related services. Following the CLS Sequential Intercept Model, the specific CLS contexts examined include community services, police encounters, the courts (pre- and post-disposition), incarceration (pre-trial detention, jail, and prison), reentry (from jails, prisons, and unified systems), and community supervision (probation and parole). Examples of innovative linkage facilitation interventions are drawn from the Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN). Areas for future research and policy change are highlighted to advance the science of linkage facilitation for OUD services in the CLS.

Introduction: Engaging families in behavioral health services is a high priority for juvenile justice (JJ) systems and family advocacy groups. Family-driven care (FDC) enhances family engagement and decision-making power in youth behavioral health services, ultimately, improving youth and family mental health and substance abuse outcomes. Despite the benefits, there is limited guidance on how to integrate FDC into behavioral health care within the JJ system. Therefore, the goal of this study is to understand factors that promoted adoption of FDC the JJ context.

Methods: JJ staff and leadership across the state of Georgia participated in surveys and interviews to understand contextual implementation determinants related to the adoption of FDC. Between November 2021- July 2022, 140 JJ staff participated in the survey from 61 unique JJ organizations. In addition, 16 staff participated in follow-up key informant interviews to explain quantitative findings.

Results: Based on a mixed methods analysis, JJ agencies were more likely to implement FDC if they had the following characteristics: (1) presence of site leaders that were strongly committed to family engagement, (2) a shared understanding that family engagement was a top priority, (3) staff training related to family engagement, (4) external partnerships with organizations that serve families, (5) a workplace culture that was supportive of innovation, and (6) presence of family engagement programs that were easier (or more feasible) for staff to implement.

Discussion: This mixed methods study underscores the importance of strengthening these 6 inner and outer setting implementation determinants when preparing to integrate FDC into JJ systems. Findings are used to promote the adoption and delivery of this high priority intervention in a state-level JJ system.