Stopping the Vicious Cycle: Equitable Enforcement Strategies to Achieve Safe, Stable, and Accessible Housing for People with Disabilities.

Policy Points People with disabilities experience a vicious cycle of poverty, poor health, and marginalization partly because of the inequitable implementation and enforcement of laws, including underenforcement of civil rights and housing laws and overenforcement of punitive nuisance and criminal laws. Inequitable enforcement reflects policy choices that prioritize powerful entities (e.g., landlords, developers) to the detriment of people who experience intersectional structural discrimination based on, for example, race, disability, and income. Equitable enforcement, a process of ensuring compliance with the law while considering and minimizing harms to marginalized people, can promote health and disability justice by increasing access to safe, stable, and accessible housing.

Wildlife must be protected from crime and trade for the sake of public and planetary health.

COVID-19 most likely had its origins in wildlife, and hundreds of thousands of new viruses could spill over from wildlife to humans. We are struggling to combat climate change, and we are staring down the loss of a million species. It's time to change course.

Juvenile Justice-Based Interdisciplinary Collective Care: An Innovative Approach.

Mental health concerns among juvenile-justice-involved youth (JJIY) continue to be a major health crisis in the United States (US). While scholarship has explored mental health concerns among JJIY, and the link to negative life outcomes, there are gaps in the existing research, particularly in effective interventions and models aimed at addressing both the mental health concerns and criminogenic risk contributing to recidivism and other negative life outcomes of this population. In this paper, we present Justice-Based Interdisciplinary Collective Care (JBICC), an innovative framework to address both the mental health needs and delinquent behavior of youth offenders. The model bridges community partners, with the purpose of informing future interventions, implementations, and research in this area. Increased justice-based interdisciplinary collective collaboration between the juvenile justice system and community programs/organizations would be a major benefit to youth offenders and their families. We also focus on the need for cultural responsiveness to be interwoven throughout all aspects of treatment. JBICC offers an opportunity to expanded services outside traditional settings and methods to ensure that youth offenders and their families receive validating and culturally responsive access to services.

Opioid use and HIV treatment services experiences among male criminal justice-involved persons in South Africa: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Opioid use disorder (OUD) is overrepresented among people with criminal justice involvement; HIV is a common comorbidity in this population. This study aimed to examine how formerly incarcerated men living with HIV and OUD in South Africa experienced HIV and OUD services in correctional facilities and the community. METHODS: Three focus group discussions were conducted with 16 formerly incarcerated men living with HIV and OUD in Gauteng, South Africa. Discussions explored available healthcare services in correctional facilities and the community and procedural and practice differences in health care between the two types of settings. Data were analyzed thematically, using a comparative lens to explore the relationships between themes. RESULTS: Participants described an absence of medical services for OUD in correctional facilities and the harms caused by opioid withdrawal without medical support during incarceration. They reported that there were limited OUD services in the community and that what was available was not connected with public HIV clinics. Participants perceived correctional and community HIV care systems as readily accessible but suggested that a formal system did not exist to ensure care continuity post-release. CONCLUSIONS: OUD was perceived to be medically unaddressed in correctional facilities and marginally attended to in the community. In contrast, HIV treatment was widely available within the two settings. The current model of OUD care in South Africa leaves many of the needs of re-entrants unmet. Integrating harm reduction into all primary care medical services may address some of these needs. Successful HIV care models provide examples of approaches that can be applied to developing and expanding OUD services in South Africa.

HIV CRIMINALIZATION'S ORIGINS, ENFORCEMENT, AND SOCIAL IMPACTS.

This article aims to raise awareness and stimulate serious discussion about the ineffectiveness of HIV criminalization and its impact on human rights and public health and to propose improvements in criminal law regulation. The study is based on the empirical and analytical data of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, the World Health Organization, legal acts, drafts legal acts, legal practice, and statistics of Ukraine, legal acts of the USA, Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. In total, 21 laws, drafts of laws, other documents, and 26 court decisions were analyzed. Dialectical, comparative, analytical, synthetic, systemic, sociological, induction, and deduction research methods were applied. The criminalization of HIV stems from a lack of awareness among policymakers and society about advances in medical science and ways to control the epidemic. Such regulation is ineffective, leads to stigmatization of people living with HIV, and has a negative impact on the epidemic. Causing harm to a person's health by intentionally infecting a person with a severe infectious disease could be criminalized under the general norm on bodily harm, excluding the stigmatization of patients with certain nosologies.

Criminal Justice Involvement after Release from Prison following Exposure to Community Mental Health Services among People Who Use Illicit Drugs and Have Mental Illness: a Systematic Review.

Illicit drug use and mental illness are common among people in prison and are associated with higher rates of reoffending and reimprisonment. We conducted a systematic review, searching MEDLINE, Embase, and PsycINFO to January 10, 2022, for studies reporting criminal justice involvement following exposure to community mental health services among people released from jail or prison who use illicit drugs and have mental illness. Our search identified 6954 studies; 13 were eligible for inclusion in this review. Studies were separated into three broad categories based on community mental health service type. Eleven of 13 studies reported a reduction in criminal justice involvement among participants exposed to community mental health services compared to a comparison group. Findings indicate a need to expand and improve integration and referral mechanisms linking people to community mental health services after jail or prison release, alongside a need for tailored programs for individuals with complex illicit drug use and mental health morbidities.

Intersectoral violence prevention: the potential of public health-criminal justice partnerships.

Building successful intersectoral partnerships to address health is critical to reaching health promotion goals. With the confluence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the increase in violence during the pandemic and the heightened demand for racial justice resulting from police killings of people of color, particularly young, black males, intersectoral public health-criminal justice partnerships must be more thoroughly examined. Violence prevention is both a public health and criminal justice issue, with public health systems emphasizing primary prevention and criminal justice systems addressing violence prevention at secondary and tertiary levels. Public health-criminal justice collaborations can provide an opportunity to seize upon unrealized violence reduction goals across the spectrum of prevention. At the same time, issues remain that are at odds across field boundaries as exemplified through community violence prevention. While there have been successful examples of such collaborations, past public health-criminal justice partnerships also demonstrate the challenges of working together. These challenges have yet to be systematically described and rooted in the larger literature on partnerships. In this paper, collaborative challenges are enumerated and evidence-informed strategies to overcome those barriers to achieve violence reduction goals are identified as a way to ground further intersectoral partnership work between public health and criminal justice.

Linking Public Health and Public Safety Data on Co-occurring Disorders Among Adults in Hawaii's Criminal Justice System.

To better understand the behavioral health treatment needs of adults involved in the criminal justice system and to improve the continuum of services provided to this vulnerable population, Hawaii initiated a data linkage project that connects substance use and mental health data from the state Department of Public Safety with behavioral health treatment data from the state Department of Health for the State of Hawaii. Specifically, this linkage project begins to examine behavioral health treatment levels recommended by the criminal justice system and Hawaii State Hospital inpatient psychiatric admissions. We provide a preliminary summary on individuals who were both involved in the criminal justice system and received court-ordered inpatient psychiatric treatment and outline data governance procedures, future directions, and practice recommendations.

Hairdos and Help-seeking: Mandatory Domestic Violence Training for Salon Workers.

Traditional methods to prevent and respond to domestic violence include criminal laws, national hotlines, and community programming to promote healthy relationships. Despite these methods, domestic violence continues to be a prevalent public health issue. In recent years, some states began to focus prevention and intervention efforts on the beauty industry. States including Arkansas, Illinois, Tennessee and Washington enacted laws that mandate domestic violence training for salon workers and other beauty professionals. The laws largely require salon workers to attend an informational training on domestic violence before obtaining or renewing their license. However, they do not require any affirmative action on the part of the salon worker if the client discloses that he or she is experiencing domestic violence. This paper investigates how the legislation uses the historically close relationship between hairdressers and their clients in order to achieve a unique way of reaching domestic violence victims, as well as the drawbacks to the legislative structure and atypical public health approach.

A Dyadic Analysis of Criminal Justice Involvement and Sexual HIV Risk Behaviors Among Drug-Involved Men in Community Corrections and Their Intimate Partners in New York City: Implications for Prevention, Treatment and Policies.

People in community corrections have rates of HIV and sexual risk behaviors that are much higher than the general population. Prior literature suggests that criminal justice involvement is associated with increased sexual risk behaviors, yet these studies focus on incarceration and use one-sided study designs that only collect data from one partner. To address gaps in the literature, this study used the Actor Partner-Interdependence Model with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), to perform a dyadic analysis estimating individual (actor-only) partner-only, and dyadic patterns (actor-partner) of criminal justice involvement and greater sexual risks in a sample of 227 men on probation and their intimate partners in New York City, United States. Standard errors were bootstrapped with 10,000 replications to reduce bias in the significance tests. Goodness of fit indices suggested adequate or better model fit for all the models. Significant actor-only relationships included associations between exposures to arrest, misdemeanor convictions, time spent in jail or prison, felony convictions, lifetime number of incarceration events, prior conviction for disorderly conduct and increased sexual risk behaviors. Partner only effects included significant associations between male partners conviction for a violent crime and their female partners' sexual risk behaviors. Men's encounters with police and number of prior misdemeanors were associated with their own and intimate partners' sexual risk behaviors. Women's prior arrest was associated with their own and intimate partners' sexual risk behaviors. The results from the present study suggest that men on probation and their intimate partners' criminal justice involvement are associated with increased engagement in sexual risk behaviors. It is necessary to conduct greater research into developing dyadic sexual risk reduction and HIV/STI prevention interventions for people who are involved in the criminal justice system.

Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Awareness Among Black Men Who Have Sex with Men with a History of Criminal Justice Involvement in Six U.S. Cities: Findings from the HPTN 061 Study.

Transition from detention to the community for Black men who have sex with men with criminal justice involvement (BMSM-CJI) represents a particularly vulnerable period for HIV acquisition and transmission. We examined levels of HIV PrEP awareness among BMSM-CJI. PrEP awareness among BMSM-CJI was low (7.9%) with evidence of lower awareness levels among those with STI. There was evidence that HIV testing history was associated with higher PrEP awareness. Study findings highlight needs for further assessment of PrEP knowledge among BMSM-CJI. The strong association between HIV testing and PrEP awareness underscores an opportunity to integrate PrEP education within HIV/STI testing services.

Multilevel Factors Shaping Awareness of and Attitudes Toward Pre-exposure Prophylaxis for HIV Prevention among Criminal Justice-Involved Women.

Although pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a key tool in HIV prevention efforts, little is known about PrEP as a prevention strategy for criminal justice-involved (CJI) women. The purpose of this study was to examine multilevel factors shaping PrEP awareness and acceptability among CJI women. Between January 2017 and December 2017, we conducted 52 interviews with CJI women at high risk for HIV and stakeholders from the criminal justice (CJ) and public health (PH) systems. Interviews explored awareness of PrEP and the multilevel factors shaping PrEP acceptability. Data were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis and executive summaries. Atlas.ti facilitated analyses. The majority of CJI women (n = 27) were, on average, 41.3 years, from racial and ethnic minority groups (56% Black/African-American; 19% Latinx) and reported engaging in recent high-risk behavior (nearly 60% engaged in transactional sex, 22% reported ≥ 4 sexual partners, and 37% reported injection drug use). Of system stakeholders (n = 25), 52% represented the CJ sector. Although CJI women were generally unaware of PrEP, attitudes toward PrEP were enthusiastic. Barriers to PrEP acceptability included medication side effects (individual level); distrust in HIV prevention mechanisms (community level); lack of local HIV prevention efforts among high-risk women (public policy/HIV epidemic stage level). Factors promoting PrEP included perceived HIV risk (individual level); PrEP being an HIV prevention method that women can control without partner negotiation (social and sexual network level); and availability of public health insurance (community level). Despite low awareness of PrEP, CJI women expressed positive attitudes toward PrEP. To improve PrEP access for CJI women, implementation efforts should address barriers and leverage facilitators across multiple levels to be maximally effective.

THE PROBLEMS OF DEFINITION OF THE ABETTING IN THE COMISSION OF THE OFFENCES INVOLVING THREATS TO PUBLIC HEALTH (PART 1 OF ARTICLE 9 OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE CONVENTION ON THE COUNTERFEITING OF MEDICAL PRODUCTS AND SIMILAR CRIMES INVOLVING THREATS TO PUBLIC HEALTH).

OBJECTIVE: The aim: based on the features of the notion of "abetting the commission of crimes established in accordance with the Convention" provided for in Part 1 of Art. 9 of the Medicrime Convention, it is necessary to offer an adequate understanding of the notion of "abetting" and define the types of criminal offenses (crimes) that are the "subject" of such abetting. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Materials and methods: the research is based on an analysis of the provisions of the Medicrime Convention and the criminal law of Ukraine. The following methods were used: dialectical method; hermeneutic method; systemic-and-structural method; and comparative-legal method. RESULTS: Results: at the legislative level, there is a problem of designating the relevant socio-legal phenomena with adequate concepts and interpretations of these concepts. In the current criminal legislation of Ukraine, there is no definition of the concept of "abetting", which is used in Part 1 of Art. 9 of the Medicrime Convention. Therefore, in the implementation of the requirements provided for in Part 1 of Art. 9 of the Medicrime Convention, each Party takes the necessary legislative and other measures to recognize abetting in committing any crimes, established under this Convention, as a crime, therefore we should take into account the existence of two alternative ways to explain the meaning of "abetting": 1) to recognize at the legislative level that "abetting" and "incitement" are synonyms, and therefore the meaning of the term "abetting" can be explained by using the term "inclination"; 2) to recognize at the legislative level that the concept of "abetting" has a meaning different from the concept of "incitement", and covers not only "inclination", but also "coercion", "motivation" and "encouragement". CONCLUSION: Conclusions: the main disadvantage of using the concept of "abetting" in the text of the Ukrainian translation of the Medicrime Convention is that without an independent explanation of this concept at the legislative level, its content should be determined depending on the meaning of the term "inciter" under Part 4 of Art. 27 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), and means inciting a person to commit any of the crimes specified in the Medicrime Convention.

Policy Determinants of Inequitable Exposure to the Criminal Legal System and Their Health Consequences Among Young People.

Criminalizing young people, particularly Black- and Brown-identified young people, has increasingly been a feature of US rhetoric, policies, and practices. Thus, the domains in which young people are exposed to the legal system have continued to expand, encompassing their communities, schools, and homes. Importantly, public health researchers have begun exploring links between legal system exposure and health, although this literature is primarily focused at the interpersonal level and assesses associations within a single domain or in adulthood.Using critical race theory and ecosocial theory of disease distribution, we identified potential policy-level determinants of criminalization and briefly summarized the literature on downstream health outcomes among young people. Our analysis suggests that policy decisions may facilitate the targeting of structurally marginalized young people across domains.Future research should (1) position these legislative decisions as primary exposures of interest to understand their association with health among young people and inform institutional-level intervention, (2) measure the totality of exposure to the criminal legal system across domains, and (3) use theory to examine the complex ways racism operates institutionally to shape inequitable distributions of associated health outcomes.

From trauma-blind to trauma-informed: re-thinking criminalization and the role of trauma in persons with serious mental illness.

Trauma-informed approaches offer a new perspective for understanding how and why individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) become entangled in the criminal justice system. There is growing awareness that many individuals with SMI have experienced significant life trauma, and factors beyond SMI that contribute to criminalization are being identified; however, the role of trauma continues to be overlooked in many formulations. In trauma-blind systems, trauma-related behaviors are often misunderstood and met with responses that exacerbate psychiatric and behavioral problems. Trauma-informed approaches provide a richer understanding of underlying drivers of behavior, and view trauma as an integral component of risk management, case formulation, relationship-based care, and referral. Embedding trauma-informed principles across organizations promotes continuity of care, safety, and more compassionate cultures that help reduce the flow of individuals with SMI into the criminal justice system. An expanded view of the criminalization hypothesis is offered, which incorporates all factors addressed in current research.

Criminal Justice or Public Health: A Comparison of the Representation of the Crack Cocaine and Opioid Epidemics in the Media.

CONTEXT: The opioid epidemic is a major US public health crisis. Its scope prompted significant public outreach, but this response triggered a series of journalistic articles comparing the opioid epidemic to the crack cocaine epidemic. Some authors claimed that the political response to the crack cocaine epidemic was criminal justice rather than medical in nature, motivated by divergent racial demographics. METHODS: We examine these assertions by analyzing the language used in relevant newspaper articles. Using a national sample, we compare word frequencies from articles about crack cocaine in 1988-89 and opioids in 2016-17 to evaluate media framings. We also examine articles about methamphetamines in 1992-93 and heroin throughout the three eras to distinguish between narratives used to describe the crack cocaine and opioid epidemics. FINDINGS: We find support for critics' hypotheses about the differential framing of the two epidemics: articles on the opioid epidemic are likelier to use medical terminology than criminal justice terminology while the reverse is true for crack cocaine articles. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis suggests that race and legality may influence policy responses to substance-use epidemics. Comparisons also suggest that the evolution of the media narrative on substance use cannot alone account for the divergence in framing between the two epidemics.

Court-Affiliated Diversion Programs for Prostitution-Related Crimes: A Comprehensive Review of Program Components and Impact.

OBJECTIVE: Court diversion programs offer alternative treatment interventions in lieu of punitive sanctions. Programs have recently been developed for women arrested for prostitution, with a recognition that many of these individuals frequently experience multiple forms of violence and experience multiple barriers to exiting sex work. This review aims to (a) examine programmatic components used across programs, and (b) identify the diversionary programs' impact on participants. METHODS: Studies were identified by entering key search words into three electronic databases and by conducting a citation search. RESULTS: Nine articles were included in the review. Although programs varied in structure, services, and length of time, studies indicated a range of positive outcomes for participants. CONCLUSIONS: Results help to illuminate future directions for criminal justice practice, policy, and research.

Nursing in the American Justice System.

Efforts to provide humane care for the mentally ill has led to growth of more suitable services in community-based settings, yet resources are insufficient to meet the needs of mentally ill who interface with the criminal justice system. The resulting collateral damage has created a pathway to prison for massive numbers of impaired individuals, and the inhumane warehousing of thousands of mentally ill people is reminiscent of a century ago. The criminal justice system was never intended to be a safety net for the public mental health system. While advances in expanding the role of the nurse in the healthcare system have shifted because of efforts by nursing's response to the 2010 Institute of Medicine report, the challenges for correctional/custody nursing have not been adequately articulated. This paper seeks to enhance awareness of Correctional Nursing through a discussion of challenges posed to nurses who work at the intersection of justice and public health in prisons, jails, detention centers and community supervision in this response to the Future of Nursing report.

Improving Substance Use Services for Juvenile Justice-Involved Youth: Complexity of Process Improvement Plans in a Large Scale Multi-site Study.

Despite the high prevalence of substance use disorders among juvenile offenders, most do not receive services. System-level process improvement plans to address unmet service needs can be optimized by combining data-driven decisions and facilitated meetings with behavioral health stakeholders. This paper operationalizes and analyzes the level of specified complexity among process improvement plans evident within 36 juvenile probation and drug courts across 7 states. To inform more effective implementation strategies, this analysis identifies and prioritizes promising courses of agency enhancement toward addressing unmet substance use needs.

Perceptions of plea bargaining in cases of elder financial abuse.

The present study investigated perceptions of plea bargains in elder financial abuse. Approximately 78-90% of felony convictions are the result of plea bargains, yet very little work examines the public's perceptions of it. Additionally, elders lose an estimated $2.6-36.5 billion dollars each year to financial abuse and exploitation. Participants were recruited from Mturk (N = 74) and completed a mixed-factors 2 (Amount of Money Stolen: $5,000 vs. $50,000) x 2 (Relationship of Victim and Perpetrator: son vs. caretaker) x 2 (Type of Sentence: reduced jail sentence vs. probation) x 2 (Participant Gender) design. Amount, relationship, and sentence were within-participant factors, while gender was between-participant. It was found that there were main effects of amount, sentence, and relationship between victim and defendant such that participants showed a preference for plea bargains when the amount in question was lower ($5,000 vs. $50,000), when the sentence given was harsher (a reduced jail sentence vs. probation), and when the defendant was the victim's son (vs. a caretaker).