To identify implementation barriers and facilitators to the adoption and implementation of programs that provide opioid agonist treatments (OAT) with methadone and buprenorphine to treat opioid use disorder in jails and prisons in the United States.
Document Tag: 2021
In December 2020, Congress lifted a 26-year ban on Pell Grants for incarcerated students. The ban, enacted amid a slew of “tough-on-crime” policies in the 1990s, stripped people in prison of access to this federal financial aid. Incarcerated people earn pennies per hour for the work they do in prison, making it next to impossible for them to afford postsecondary education without financial support. Under the ban, the number of prison education programs shrank drastically, from 772 programs in the early 1990s to only eight in 1997. The FAFSA Simplification Act, which restores access to Pell Grants for people in prison, will make it possible once again for thousands to pursue postsecondary education.
This brief presents prevalence estimates of two mental health indicators based on data reported by state and federal prisoners: the prisoner reported experiences that met the threshold for serious psychological distress (SPD) during the 30 days prior to their interview and the prisoner having a history of a mental health problem. Findings are based on self-reported data from the 2016 Survey of Prison Inmates.
The ability to find and secure employment, particularly with a livable wage, is one of the most critical aspects to helping people lead safe and healthy lives. Unfortunately, many people leaving prison and jail face barriers and stigmas associated with their incarceration that prevent them from obtaining employment. Supported employment services, customized for people with behavioral health needs, can help address these challenges and provide the assistance needed for people with behavioral health conditions to obtain and sustain gainful employment as they reenter communities. This brief highlights four ways that reentry and community supervision programs can use supported employment services to prepare people with behavioral health needs for successful reentry.
By understanding the emotions of others and responding intelligently and rationally, we are better equipped to deescalate most situations.
Correctional officers (COs) experience elevated rates of mental and physical ill-health as compared with other general industry and public safety occupations. The purpose of this study was to investigate demographic, mental health, job tenure, and work–family characteristics and their prospective association to burnout within and between jail officers during one year of new employment.
“Inside Out” by Keri Blakinger is a partnership between NBC News and The Marshall Project, a nonprofit newsroom covering the U.S. criminal justice system. The column draws on Blakinger’s unique perspective as an investigative journalist and formerly incarcerated person.
This course will provide new jail administrators, sheriffs, and prospective jail administrators an overview of the roles and responsibilities of a jail administrator. Course content will be presented at an introductory level and aims to orient the intended audience to the critical functions, roles, and responsibilities the jail has in the local community and in the public safety sphere. Estimated duration: 1 hour. (NIC ID: 21ECJA2900)
Background: Correctional Officers show signs of adverse health early in their careers. We evaluated the impact of a one-year peer health mentoring program for new officers based on
a Total Worker Health® approach; Conclusions: A continuous peer health mentoring program seemed protective to new officers in reducing burnout and also declines in BMI and hypertension. Short-term physical health markers in younger officers may not be an index of psycho-social effects. A participatory design approach is recommended for a long-term health mentoring program to be both effective and sustainable.
The overrepresentation of individuals with mental illness in the criminal/legal system is well documented. While professional associations urge diversion towards treatment, little is known about the practices these institutions use to identify this population. One understudied space in the criminal/legal continuum is jails. This exploratory study compares two types of mental health identification at jail booking to assess jail- and community-based service outcomes by identification type (N = 2956): (a) staff observation and (b) a standardized screening instrument. Individuals identified through staff observation were significantly more likely to receive jail- and community-based services, even though current symptomology and substance misuse were both significantly higher for individuals identified only by the screening instrument. These findings point to the importance of jails in providing stabilizing services during incarceration, but further, show the impact that identification practices have on individuals as they transition to the community. Community context showed varied rates of jail staff observations of mental illness, showing greater risks for individuals in rural communities. Implications include a need for system-level changes by instituting evidence-based identification practices in jails, and improving professional collaboration practices between mental health and criminal/legal practitioners as individuals enter and exit jails.