Jail Reentry Research Articles

Attrition from Jail Reentry Program Increases Recidivism

Reentry programs represent an increasingly popular method to reduce recidivism for individuals exiting prison and jail systems throughout the United States. Most evaluations tend to focus on recidivism as the primary outcome of interest. Attrition, however, can function an important supplementary measure that complements recidivism outcomes. To demonstrate, we analyze a jail reentry program built around peer navigators serving as staff members that refer participants to necessary support services while also serving as a mentor to participants exiting jail. We use a combination of general linear models (GLMs), Mahalanobis distance matching (MDM), and panel regression to both predict attrition and compare recidivism outcomes between three attrition groups: program completers, program quitters, and matched controls. Participants that successfully completed the program did not avoid new convictions or reincarceration significantly more or less than matched controls. Participants that quit the program, however, saw significantly higher conviction and reincarceration rates compared to matched controls. The nuance added to our program evaluation by adding attrition as a differential factor is worth consideration by other reentry programs who may not be realizing the full picture of their results by presenting recidivism outcomes alone.

Rural Jail Reentry Non-Clinical Case Management: An Examination of the Middle Tennessee Rural Reentry (MTRR) Program

This study evaluates the Middle Tennessee Rural Reentry (MTRR) program. MTRR is a rural reentry program funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance that uses non-clinical case managers. Specifically, the program provided non-clinical case management and services to 144 medium and high-risk offenders released from a rural county correctional facility for up to 12 months after incarceration. Fully 56.9% of offenders completed the program, with 52.8% recidivating (i.e., arrest and revocation of supervision). Program completion did not have a statistically significant impact on recidivism. Moreover, females who participated in the program had a significantly lower overall likelihood of recidivism than when compared to male participants. Additional findings and policy implications for rural jail programs are also discussed.

"It was there when I came home": young adults and jail reentry in the context of COVID-19.

In this study, the authors explore how young adults navigated the dual challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and jail reentry in a large urban environment. Fifteen young adults (aged 18–25) participated in up to nine monthly semi-structured interviews to discuss their experiences of reentry during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., spring and summer 2020). Participants held mixed attitudes and beliefs about COVID-19. Several participants viewed the pandemic as a hoax, while others took the pandemic more seriously, particularly if their friends and family members had contracted the virus. Yet nearly all participants viewed the pandemic as having a relatively minimal impact on their lives compared to the weight of their reentry challenges and probation requirements. Young adults described COVID-19 stay-at-home orders as limiting their exposure to negative influences and facilitating compliance with probation requirements. However, resource closures due to COVID-19, including schools, employment programs, and social services presented barriers to reentry success. The authors draw upon these findings to pose implications for interventions supporting young adult reentry.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12103-022-09683-8.

Scoping review of interventions to link individuals to substance use services at discharge from jail

IntroductionIndividuals with substance use disorders (SUD) must be linked to community-based SUD treatment and other services upon their release from jail, given their high service needs and risks for relapse, recidivism, and opioid-related overdose following release. MethodThis scoping review identified 14 studies (28 affiliated publications) that used experimental or quasi-experimental designs to evaluate jail re-entry interventions for individuals with SUD. The team coded intervention components, study characteristics, and study outcomes based on a service continuum for treatment linkage and retention and for post-release substance use and criminal justice outcomes. ResultsThis review included 4 randomized controlled trials (RCT) for linkage to treatment with medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD); 4 RCTs and 4 quasi-experimental studies for linkage to non-specific SUD treatment; and 2 RCTs for linkage to HIV + SUD services. Most studies (9/14) used case management and/or peer or patient navigation as the core intervention; 2 studies provided medical management for MOUD induction and/or facilitated referral to MOUD in the community; and 3 studies used motivational-based linkage interventions. A qualitative analysis of study outcomes found evidence to support the effectiveness of a diverse range of interventions to link individuals to community-based SUD treatment, MOUD, and other services at re-entry, but limited support for intervention effects on longer-term outcomes, including treatment retention, medication adherence, recidivism, and substance use. ConclusionFuture controlled trials and implementation studies should help to unpack and examine core components of jail re-entry interventions and their successful implementation to enhance treatment retention and improve post-release outcomes.

Jail Reentry and Gaps in Substance Use Disorder Treatment in Rural Communities

ABSTRACT There are many barriers to jail reentry, particularly for those suffering from substance use disorder who live in isolated rural communities. This study draws on qualitative interviews conducted with 17 individuals involved in the criminal justice system, either through their own incarceration or probation sentence or as correctional or probation staff, to identify unmet reentry-related needs for individuals with substance use disorder in a rural community. Participants describe fear of continued drug use and a lack of a safe place to stay as the most pressing post-release concerns. The lack of readily accessible local behavioral health services was also consistently recognized as a significant gap by staff and criminal justice involved individuals alike. There was an emphasis on the importance of limiting the time between release and engagement with community-based treatment for ensuring initiation of long-term recovery and successful reentry. Based on these findings, recommendations for closing these gaps include increasing available housing for substance using populations (i.e., inpatient treatment facilities), expanding the quantity and quality of behavioral healthcare services in the community, improving communication between criminal justice agents and treatment providers, expanding jail-based medication assisted therapy (MAT) programs, and reducing the stigma associated with substance use in rural communities.

A Telemedicine Buprenorphine Clinic to Serve New York City: Initial Evaluation of the NYC Public Hospital System's Initiative to Expand Treatment Access During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objectives:The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility and clinical impact of telemedicine-based opioid treatment with buprenorphine-naloxone following the Coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.Methods:Participants included in this retrospective analysis consisted of adult New York City residents with opioid use disorder eligible for enrollment in the NYC Health+Hospitals Virtual Buprenorphine Clinic between March and May 2020 (n = 78). Follow-up data were comprised of rates of retention in treatment at 2 months, referrals to community treatment, and induction-related events.Results:During the initial 9 weeks of clinic operations, the clinic inducted 78 patients on to buprenorphine-naloxone and completed 252 visits. Patient referrals included non-NYC Health + Hospitals (n = 22, 28.2%) and NYC Health + Hospitals healthcare providers (n = 17, 21.8%), homeless shelter staff (n = 13, 16.7%), and the NYC Health + Hospitals jail reentry program in Rikers Island (n = 11, 14.1%). At 8 weeks, 42 patients remained in care (53.8%), 21 were referred to a community treatment program (26.9%), and 15 were lost to follow-up (19.2%). No patients were terminated from care due to disruptive behavior or suspicions of diversion or misuse of Buprenorphine. Adverse clinical outcomes were uncommon and included persistent withdrawal symptoms (n = 8, 4.3%) and one nonfatal opioid overdose (0.5%).Conclusions:Telemedicine-based opioid treatment and unobserved home induction on buprenorphine-naloxone offers a safe and feasible approach to expand the reach of opioid use disorder treatment, primary care, and behavioral health for a highly vulnerable urban population during an unprecedented natural disaster.

Comparing the Perceptions of Reentry Challenges: An Examination of Pennsylvania Magisterial District Judges, Probation/Parole Officers, and Inmates

ABSTRACT This study explores the issues associated with offender reentry from the perspectives of magistrate judges, probation and parole officers, and current inmates throughout Pennsylvania. The research examined each subgroup’s unique views of the challenges associated with returning offenders and their attitudes regarding programming for offenders in their area including the services that should be available. Survey methodology was employed and results indicate a disconnection between the three groups on several indicators. Principally, the inmates reported income and structural-related challenges to be among their highest concerns for jail reentry. These findings were different from judges and probation/parole officers who viewed personal challenges to be stronger barriers. The researchers discuss further findings and implications for future research.

Exit Interviews in Criminal Justice: A Research Note

ABSTRACT Although exit interviews are common in business and educational contexts, they are utilized less frequently in the criminal justice system. This is unfortunate, however, as exit interviews can alert program staff to issues or areas for improvement, further contextualize and enrich qualitative data collected during program evaluations, and serve as a quality control check on original fieldwork. This study relates findings from an exit interview questionnaire administered to inmates following participation in a Bureau of Justice Assistance-sponsored jail reentry program in Ohio. Results provided support for the risk-needs-responsivity model, offered feedback to program staff, and highlighted the importance of obtaining data from key stakeholders in correctional programming–program participants.

Extended-release naltrexone opioid treatment at jail reentry (XOR)

BackgroundExtended-release naltrexone (XR-NTX) is an injectable monthly sustained-release mu opioid receptor antagonist, which blocks the typical effects of heroin and other opioid agonists. Use of XR-NTX among opioid dependent persons leaving jails and prisons is increasing despite scant high-quality evidence regarding XR-NTX's effectiveness at re-entry. MethodsThis 24-week, open-label randomized controlled trial examines the effectiveness of XR-NTX as opioid relapse prevention at release from jail (N=85) compared to enhanced treatment as usual (ETAU, N=85). A third, non-randomized, quasi-experimental naturalistic arm of participants who have newly initiated a jail-to-community methadone treatment program (MTP, N=85) allows for comparisons to a methadone standard-of-care. ResultsWe describe the rationale, design, and primary and secondary outcomes of the study. The primary outcome is an opioid relapse event; the primary contrast is a time-to-relapse comparison of XR-NTX and ETAU over a 24-week treatment phase. Secondary outcomes are rates of: (a) post-release opioid treatment participation, (b) opioid, alcohol, and cocaine use, (c) injection drug use and HIV sexual risk behaviors, (d) overdose (fatal and non-fatal) and all-cause mortality, and, (e) re-incarceration. ConclusionsXR-NTX is a potentially important, effective treatment and relapse prevention option for a large US population of persons with opioid use disorders leaving jails. This study will estimate XR-NTX's effectiveness relative to existing standards of care, including counseling-only treatment-as-usual and methadone maintenance.

Outcome Evaluation of a Family-Based Jail Reentry Program for Substance Abusing Offenders

Offender reentry programs have proliferated since the passage of the Second Chance Act in 2008. This study examines the effectiveness of one such jail-based reentry program for male inmates diagnosed with substance dependency and who have minor children, the Delaware County (OH) Jail Substance Abuse Treatment program. This program served 34 offenders and their families over 2 years and was based on the Community Reinforcement and Family Training model, a treatment modality for substance abuse involving both operant conditioning and family-based therapy for behavioral modification. Results from a quasi-experimental design indicate that program participants were significantly less likely to be rearrested within 1 year after release relative to a comparison group of similarly situated offenders and more likely to comply with child support orders following release. Findings also revealed the treatment group had significantly more days to failure for those who did recidivate.

Jails in the United States

In the United States, jails confine large numbers of people each day and process nearly 12 million admissions each year. The estimated average daily population in American jails, as of midyear 2014, was 744,600. Jail overcrowding has continued to remain a problem at the onset of the new millennium, especially in large jurisdictions. More stringent drug and crime control policies and enforcement strategies led to the precipitous rise in the jail population. Jails are a critical resource for the criminal justice system and the larger community. As local institutions, jails often serve the medical and behavioral healthcare needs of the residents in a jurisdiction and are home to the most impoverished and disenfranchised members of the community: the unemployed, the homeless, and those with addiction, and mental illness. Jails have also become increasingly more populated by women. This special issue of The Prison Journal was compiled to focus further attention on servicing and managing the jail detainee population and provides an in-depth look at jails through a variety of lenses. The issue includes articles about the proper role of the jail as a venue for delivering behavioral healthcare and other services and the jail reentry process in rural jurisdictions. Other articles explore a jail reentry program for detainees with substance use disorders; the problems and challenges of female detainees; the nature and extent of trauma among women in a large urban jail; the use and abuse of solitary confinement in jails; and the mentally ill in jails.

Rural Jail Reentry and Mental Health

The current study examines the challenges of rural jail reentry including mental health issues faced by offenders returning from jails. This study compared a sample of 200 current jail inmates, 166 probation/parole officers working in rural areas, and 21 rural treatment staff working with former offenders in a treatment capacity. Overall, inmates found structural issues (e.g., employment, housing, ability to pay fines) to be more challenging while practitioners were more likely to rank personal issues (e.g., lack of motivation, temptation to reoffend) as more problematic. Various themes emerged relating to mental health issues including health insurance, medication, transportation, and co-occurrence with substance abuse. Policy implications and recommendations for the future are discussed.

Why Public Health Practitioners Should Care About Job Prospects for People with Criminal Records: Employment Challenges and Successful Prison and Jail Reentry

Each year in the United States, over half a million individuals in prison and another nine million in jail will return to the community. Many of these men and women face extreme uncertainty when they are released: they may not know where their next meal will come from; they may not have a safe place to stay; they are often left without insurance or healthcare; their families may have left them; and very few know where to find work so they can begin to put food on the table and pay off court-ordered fines and fees. Among the myriad of needs a person has when they return from incarceration, individuals with criminal records and their probation or parole officers cite employment as the lynchpin to success.

A promising jail reentry program revisited: results from a quasi-experimental design

Prisoner reentry remains a significant challenge for the criminal justice system with millions of offenders returning to society each year from the nation’s prisons and jails. Employment, housing, and access to substance abuse and mental health treatment are common, often unmet, challenges for the returning offender. In response, state and local jurisdictions have implemented reentry programming designed to assist in the transition from incarceration to the community. While most of these programs have targeted offenders in prisons, a growing number of local jurisdictions have implemented reentry initiatives through federal funding. This study examines the second cohort (2011–2013) of the Auglaize County (OH) transition program (ACT), a BJA-designated ‘promising’ reentry program. This evaluation sought to determine if the program maintained its positive impact on participant recidivism. Findings indicate that the treatment group had significantly lower rates of rearrest and probation violations at the bivariate level, but that these results did not hold for rearrest after the inclusion of relevant control variables in the multivariate analysis. Participation remained significantly associated with reduced probation violations at the multivariate level.

Collaborative Adaptations in Social Work Intervention Research in Real-World Settings: Lessons Learned from the Field

Social work research has identified the crucial role that service practitioners play in the implementation of evidence-based practices. This has led some researchers to suggest that intervention research needs to incorporate collaborative adaptation strategies in the design and implementation of studies focused on adapting evidence-based practices to real-world practice settings. This article describes a collaborative approach to service adaptations that was used in an intervention study that integrated evidence-based mental health and correctional services in a jail reentry program for people with serious mental illness. This description includes a discussion of the nature of the collaboration engaged in this study, the implementation strategies that were used to support this collaboration, and the lessons that the research team has learned about engaging a collaborative approach to implementing interventions in research projects being conducted in real-world social service delivery settings.

Rate of Community Methadone Treatment Reporting at Jail Reentry Following a Methadone Increased Dose Quality Improvement Effort

ABSTRACT The Rikers Island Key Extended Entry Program (KEEP) has offered methadone treatment for opioid dependent inmates incarcerated in New York City's jails since 1986. In response to a trend toward low-dose methadone maintenance prescribing, a quality improvement (QI) protocol trained KEEP counselors, physicians, and pharmacists in the evidence base supporting moderate-to-high methadone maintenance doses in order to maximize therapeutic effects and rates of successful reporting to community methadone treatment programs (MTPs) post release. Discharge dose level and length of incarceration data were analyzed for 2 groups of KEEP patients discharged pre/post-QI. Among patients incarcerated for 21 or more days, the proportion of those on moderate-to-high doses of methadone increased significantly. Patients who reached a moderate-to-high methadone dose demonstrated higher rates of reporting to community MTP versus lower doses, both pre- and post-QI. Overall, a higher proportion of all patients reported to community MTP post-QI.

Community In‐Reach Through Jail Reentry: Findings from a Quasi‐Experimental Design

Offenders face a number of significant challenges upon reentry into the community, including securing employment, locating housing, and accessing adequate substance abuse and mental health treatment. These and related issues, if neglected, only bolster rising recidivism rates which have prompted renewed interest in rehabilitation initiatives such as inmate reentry. Many jurisdictions have implemented programs designed to improve offenders' success after prison, but jail reentry programs are far less common. This study examined the effectiveness of one such program, the Auglaize County (OH) Transition (ACT) Program. Using a quasiexperimental design, recidivism was measured a year after release to determine if participation in the ACT Program was predictive of successful reentry. Findings suggest that program participation is strongly related to outcome success as was criminal history. Implications for correctional policy and suggestions for additional jail reentry research are considered.

Comparison of Health and Social Characteristics of People Leaving New York City Jails by Age, Gender, and Race/Ethnicity: Implications for Public Health Interventions

We compared health and social needs by gender, age, and race/ ethnicity of people leaving New York City jails and assessed the implication of these differences for the development of jail reentry programs. Surveys were completed with 1,946 individuals (536 men, 704 women, and 706 adolescent males) between 1997 and 2004. Structured questionnaires captured data on demographic, criminal justice, substance use, and health characteristics. Bivariate comparisons were performed to determine variations between men and women, men and male adolescents, and non-Latino black and Hispanic/Latino respondents. The majority of participants were black and Hispanic/Latino, reported high levels of substance use, had high rates of recidivism, and experienced difficult living circumstances. Compared with men, women were more likely to be homeless, use illicit drugs, report drug charges at index arrest, have health problems, and be parents. Adolescent males were more likely than men to rely on illegal activities for income and to have used marijuana and alcohol recently, and were less likely to report homelessness or health problems. Ethnic/racial differences between black and Hispanic/Latino respondents within gender and age groups were smaller than differences among these groups. Jails concentrate individuals with multifaceted health and social problems, providing opportunities to engage at-risk populations in comprehensive reentry programs. Gender, age, and ethnic/racial differences among incarcerated populations require that interventions be tailored to the specific needs of these different groups.

Incarceration Rates of Persons With First-Admission Psychosis

Incarceration Rates of Persons With First-Admission Psychosis