Health and Justice最新文献

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.

Methods: To explore the impact of COVID-19 on FDDCs, we conducted 20 focus groups and 5 individual interviews with court team members from five Florida FDDCs between 2020 and 2022. Data were analyzed using iterative categorization.

Results: Five overarching themes emerged. First, FDDCs adopted virtual technology during the pandemic and more flexible drug screening policies. Second, virtual technology was perceived as improving hearing attendance but decreasing client engagement. FDDC team members discussed a potential hybrid in-person/virtual hearing model after the pandemic. Third, COVID-19 negatively impacted parent-child visitation opportunities, limiting development of bonds between parents and children, and parent-child bonding is a key consideration during judicial reunification decisions. Fourth, COVID-19 negatively impacted the mental health of court team members and clients. Court team members adopted new informal roles, such as providing technical support and emotional counseling to clients, in addition to regular responsibilities, resulting in feeling overwhelmed and overworked. Court team members described clients as feeling more depressed and anxious, in part due to limited visitation opportunities with children, which decreased clients' motivation for substance use recovery. Fifth, COVID-19 decreased recruitment of potential clients into FDDCs.

Conclusions: If FDDCs continue to rely on virtual hearings beyond the pandemic, they must develop practices for improving client engagement during virtual hearings. FDDCs should preemptively develop procedures for improving parent-child visitation during future public health crises, because limited visitation opportunities could weaken parent-child bonding and, ultimately, the likelihood of reunification.

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. Justice involvement increases risks for overdose and for riskier injecting behavior among PWUD, in turn increasing HCV and HIV risks. In Central and Southern Appalachia specifically, PWUD have identified fear of law enforcement harassment and arrest as a barrier to engaging in harm reduction behavior, and a deterrent to seeking help at the scene of an overdose. Moreover, stigmatizing and punitive treatment in healthcare settings can deter PWUD from seeking care, with life or death consequences. This evaluation research study assessing the successes and impacts of a grant-funded project to increase access to safer drug consumption supplies and overdose prevention education for PWUD, including justice-involved participants of a syringe access program (SAP), in public housing and beyond in a South-Central Appalachian setting used key informant and opportunistic sampling. Mixed-methods data were compiled and collected including secondary program data; primary interview and participant-observation data.

Results: The evaluation research identified that grant deliverables were largely achieved, despite challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, SAP participants and staff reported larger themes surrounding grant-funded activities, in which they perceived that widespread local law enforcement harassment of PWUD increased participants' risks for overdose death and infectious disease risks and that punitive local healthcare settings and policies acted as deterrents to care-seeking for many PWUD.

Conclusions: Overall, the evaluation research found that participants' experiences with and perceptions of local law enforcement harassment combined with their understandings and experiences of local punitive healthcare settings and policies; together compounding and increasing overdose risks and negative health consequences for local justice-involved PWUD.

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.

Methods: A scoping review methodology was adopted with reporting guided by the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews checklist and explanation.

Results: Sixty-seven papers were included. Most of these were from high income countries, with the majority from the United Kingdom (n = 34), followed by the United States (n = 15), and Australia (n = 12). One further paper was from India.

Discussion: The literature indicated that there were difficulties across the prison system for people with dementia along the pathway from reception to release and resettlement. These touched upon all aspects of prison life and its environment, including health and social care. A lack of resources and national and regional policies were identified as important barriers, although a number of solutions were also identified in the literature, including the development of locally tailored policies and increased collaboration with the voluntary sector.

Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the most comprehensive and inclusive review of the literature on dementia care pathways in prison to date. It has identified a number of important areas of concern and opportunities for future research across the prison system, and its operations. This will hopefully lead to the identification or adaptation of interventions to be implemented and evaluated, and facilitate the development of dementia care pathways in prisons.

Background: Over 4.53 million arrests were made in 2021 in the United States. People under 26 years of age were more likely to be arrested than older people. Although mental health disparities are prominent in the incarcerated population, the subject has not been closely examined among young adults specifically.

Objectives: This study examines how criminal justice involvement, specifically arrests, affects the mental health of adults between 18 and 25 years of age.

Methods: We analyzed secondary data using the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). The study used a subsample of 13,494 people aged 18 to 25 years, including 7,330 women and 6,164 men. History of arrest was the key independent variable. Depression, serious mental illness (SMI), substance use, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempt were the outcome variables. We performed five multivariate logistic regression models for each outcome variable, controlling for race/ethnicity, income, and education level for men and women separately.

Results: Of 13,494 respondents, 6.63% had a history of arrest. Among young women, a history of arrest was associated with significantly higher adjusted odds ratios for all mental health concerns. Most notably, a history of arrest increased the likelihood of substance use by a factor of 15.19, suicide attempts by 2.27, SMI by 1.79, suicidal ideation by 1.75, and depression by 1.52. Among young men, a history of arrest was associated with increased adjusted odds ratios (AORs) for substance use (AOR, 13.37; p < .001), suicidal ideation (AOR, 1.45; p = .011), and suicide attempt (AOR, 1.82; p = .044).

Conclusions: We found a strong relationship between young people having an arrest history and mental health concerns. More specifically, a history of arrest was associated with all mental health concerns among young women, while it was associated with only substance use and suicide among young men. Providing arrestees with appropriate mental health care would benefit them and the criminal justice system by decreasing the odds of recidivism.

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic changed U.S. prison operations and influenced the daily work of prison staff.

Methods: In collaboration with the National Institute of Corrections, we administered a survey to 31 state correctional agencies in April 2021 and conducted five focus groups with 62 correctional staff.

Results: Using a framework of bounded rationality, we find that daily operations were strained, particularly in the areas of staffing, implementing public health policy efforts, and sustaining correctional programming. While prison systems and staff were under-prepared to respond to the pandemic, they attempted to address complex problems with the limited resources they had.

Conclusions: Results underscore a need in corrections for prioritizing further developments and reviews of collaborative policies and practices for managing crisis situations. Seeking avenues for leveraging technological innovations to improve operations and facilitate enhanced communication are especially warranted. Finally, meaningful reductions in the prison population, changes in physical infrastructure, and expansions of hiring and retention initiatives are critical for positioning prisons to manage future emergencies.

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.

Methods: From May 2019 to September 2020, five law enforcement departments from Michigan participated in web-based naloxone training. A total of 182 LEOs (77% male) were in the final sample based on matching pre-and post-test surveys. LEOs were assessed on knowledge, confidence, and attitudes towards naloxone. Negative binomial and Poisson regression was conducted to assess associations between knowledge, confidence, and attitudes towards naloxone before and after training.

Results: Significant improvements in overdose knowledge and confidence were revealed across all departments with median (IQR) total composite scores for knowledge increasing from 35 (32, 37) to 40 (39, 42) (p < 0.01) and confidence increasing from 18.5 (15, 20) to 20 (20, 25) (p < 0.01). Median (IQR) attitude scores did not change.

Conclusion: Our web-based naloxone training was effective in improving knowledge and confidence for LEOs but did not significantly improve LEOs attitudes towards naloxone across most departments. The web-based format is readily scalable and quickly disseminated and meets the immediate need for LEO overdose training. Additional intervention is needed to address the negative attitudes of LEOs regarding naloxone.

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. The study population was either (a) released to the Denver metro area (Denver and its five neighboring counties), or (b) assigned to the DH Regional Accountable Entity, or (c) assigned to the DH medical home based on Colorado Department of Healthcare Policy and Financing attribution methods. Outcomes explored were outpatient, acute care, and inpatient utilization in the first 180 days after release. We used Pearson's chi-squared tests or Fisher exact for univariate comparisons and logistic regression for multivariable analysis.

Results: The care continuum describes the healthcare utilization at DH by people released from CDOC. From January 1, 2021, to June 30, 2021, 3242 people were released from CDOC and 2848 were included in the data exchange. 905 individuals of the 2848 were released to the Denver metro area or attributed to DH. In the study population of 905, 78.1% had a chronic medical or psychological condition. Within 180 days of release, 31.1% utilized any health service, 24.5% utilized at least one outpatient service, and 17.1% utilized outpatient services two or more times. 10.1% utilized outpatient services within the first 30 days of release.

Conclusions: This care continuum highlights drop offs in accessing healthcare. It can be used by governmental, correctional, community-based, and healthcare agencies to design and evaluate interventions aimed at improving the health of a population at considerable risk for poor health outcomes and death.