The resource team: A case study of a solitary confinement reform in Oregon.

The continued use of solitary confinement has sparked international public health and human rights criticisms and concerns. This carceral practice has been linked repeatedly to a range of serious psychological harms among incarcerated persons. Vulnerabilities to harm are especially dire for persons with preexisting serious mental illness ("SMI"), a group that is overrepresented in solitary confinement units.

Public Health and Prisons: Priorities in the Age of Mass Incarceration.

Mass incarceration is a sociostructural driver of profound health inequalities in the United States. The political and economic forces underpinning mass incarceration are deeply rooted in centuries of the enslavement of people of African descent and the genocide and displacement of Indigenous people and is inextricably connected to labor exploitation, racial discrimination, the criminalization of immigration, and behavioral health problems such as mental illness and substance use disorders. This article focuses on major public health crises and advances in state and federal prisons and discusses a range of practical strategies for health scholars, practitioners, and activists to promote the health and dignity of incarcerated people.

"We just needed to open the door": a case study of the quest to end solitary confinement in North Dakota.

Unlabelled: Solitary confinement is a widespread practice in US correctional facilities. Long-standing concerns about the physical and mental health effects of solitary confinement have led to litigation, legislation, and community activism resulting in many prison systems introducing policies or implementing legal mandates to reduce or eliminate its use. Yet little is known about the nature and effectiveness of policies that states have adopted to reduce their use of solitary confinement and exactly how various reforms have actually impacted the lives of people living and working in the prisons where these reforms have taken place.

COVID-19 in corrections: Quarantine of incarcerated people.

Carceral settings in the United States have been the source of many single site COVID-19 outbreaks. Quarantine is a strategy used to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in correctional settings, and specific quarantine practices differ state to state. To better understand how states are using quarantine in prisons, we reviewed each state's definition of quarantine and compared each state's definition to the Centers for Disease Control's (CDC) definition and recommendations for quarantine in jails and prisons.

The association between intersystem prison transfers and COVID-19 incidence in a state prison system.

Prisons are the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. Media reports have focused on whether transfers of incarcerated people between prisons have been the source of outbreaks. Our objective was to examine the relationship between intersystem prison transfers and COVID-19 incidence in a state prison system.

Medical Isolation and Solitary Confinement: Balancing Health and Humanity in US Jails and Prisons During COVID-19.

In the face of the continually worsening COVID-19 pandemic, jails and prisons have become the greatest vectors of community transmission and are a point of heightened crisis and fear within the global crisis. Critical public health tools to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 are medical isolation and quarantine, but use of these tools is complicated in prisons and jails where decades of overuse of punitive solitary confinement is the norm. This has resulted in advocates denouncing the use of any form of isolation and attorneys litigating to end its use.

Buprenorphine dispensing in an epicenter of the U.S. opioid epidemic: A case study of the rural risk environment in Appalachian Kentucky.

Background: Buprenorphine is a cornerstone to curbing opioid epidemics, but emerging data suggest that rural pharmacists in the US sometimes refuse to dispense this medication. We conducted a case study to explore buprenorphine dispensing practices in 12 rural Appalachian Kentucky counties, and analyze whether and how they were shaped by features of the rural risk environment.

Methods: In this case study, we conducted one-on-one semi-structured interviews with 14 pharmacists operating 15 pharmacies in these counties to explore buprenorphine dispensing practices and perceived influences on these practices.

People, places, and stigma: A qualitative study exploring the overdose risk environment in rural Kentucky.

Background: Though overdose rates have been increasing in US rural areas for two decades, little is known about the rural risk environment for overdoses. This qualitative study explored the risk environment for overdoses among young adults in Eastern Kentucky, a rural epicenter of the US opioid epidemic.

Methods: Participants were recruited via community-based outreach.

Association of Restrictive Housing During Incarceration With Mortality After Release.

Importance: Restrictive housing, otherwise known as solitary confinement, during incarceration is associated with poor health outcomes.

Objective: To characterize the association of restrictive housing with reincarceration and mortality after release.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This retrospective cohort study included 229 274 individuals who were incarcerated and released from the North Carolina prison system from January 2000 to December 2015.

Rural risk environments for hepatitis c among young adults in appalachian kentucky.

Background: Rural Kentucky is an epicenter of hepatitis C(HCV), especially among young adults who inject drugs. While the Risk Environment Framework (REF) has been used widely to study and address socio-ecological determinants of infectious disease among people who inject drugs (PWID), it has been almost exclusively applied to urban environments. Applying REF to rural environments can enhance our understanding of the drivers of HCV epidemics in these hard-hit areas, and inform the creation and implementation of harm reduction interventions in this local context.

State minimum wage laws and newly diagnosed cases of HIV among heterosexual black residents of US metropolitan areas.

This ecologic cohort study explores the relationship between state minimum wage laws and rates of HIV diagnoses among heterosexual black residents of U.S metropolitan areas over an 8-year span. Specifically, we applied hierarchical linear modeling to investigate whether state-level variations in minimum wage laws, adjusted for cost-of-living and inflation, were associated with rates of new HIV diagnoses among heterosexual black residents of metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs; n=73), between 2008 and 2015.

Opioid Use Among Those Who Have Criminal Justice Experience: Harm Reduction Strategies to Lessen HIV Risk.

Purpose Of Review: We reviewed the HIV and opioid literature relevant to harm reduction strategies for those with criminal justice experience.

Recent Findings: Opioid use in the United States has risen at an alarming rate recently. This has led to increased numbers of people who inject drugs, placing new populations at risk for HIV, including those who have criminal justice experience.

Syringe Decriminalization Advocacy in Red States: Lessons from the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition.

Purpose Of Review: Syringe access programs (SAPs) are cornerstone harm reduction interventions for combatting the national opioid epidemic. The goal of this paper is to describe effective advocacy strategies for enacting syringe decriminalization legislation to foster the expansion of SAPs in high-need areas amidst political opposition.

Recent Findings: Decades or research shows that SAPs prevent the transmission of HIV among people who inject drugs (PWID) and are a cost-effective tool for linking PWID to medical care, health education, and social services.

Criminal justice continuum for opioid users at risk of overdose.

The United States (US) is in the midst of an epidemic of opioid use; however, overdose mortality disproportionately affects certain subgroups. For example, more than half of state prisoners and approximately two-thirds of county jail detainees report issues with substance use. Overdose is one of the leading causes of mortality among individuals released from correctional settings.

Addressing excess risk of overdose among recently incarcerated people in the USA: harm reduction interventions in correctional settings.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss overdose among those with criminal justice experience and recommend harm reduction strategies to lessen overdose risk among this vulnerable population. Design/methodology/approach Strategies are needed to reduce overdose deaths among those with recent incarceration. Jails and prisons are at the epicenter of the opioid epidemic but are a largely untapped setting for implementing overdose education, risk assessment, medication assisted treatment, and naloxone distribution programs.

Commentary: the importance of Medicaid expansion for criminal justice populations in the south.

Though the full implications of a Trump presidency for ongoing health care and criminal justice reform efforts remain uncertain, whatever policy changes are made will be particularly salient for the South, which experiences the highest incarceration rates, highest uninsured rates, and worst health outcomes in the United States. The passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010 was a watershed event and many states have taken advantage of opportunities created by the ACA to expand healthcare coverage to their poorest residents, and to develop partnerships between health and justice systems. Yet to date, only four have taken advantage of the benefits of healthcare reform.

A Call to Action: A Blueprint for Academic Health Sciences in the Era of Mass Incarceration.

Over 100 million Americans have criminal records, and the U.S. incarcerates seven times more citizens than most developed countries.