People With Incarceration History Less Likely to Receive Health Care, Including Cancer Screening in the U.S.

A new study led by researchers at the American Cancer Society (ACS) shows people with an incarceration history had worse access to and receipt of healthcare, including physical exams, blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol tests, as well as dental check-ups and breast and colorectal cancer screenings compared with people without incarceration history in the United States. The findings are published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Health Forum.

Study Explores Incarceration, Employment and Re-offense During COVID-19 Pandemic

The study not only examined the effects of the transitional employment program participation on employment and recidivism, but also looked at the program’s mechanisms such as hours worked and hours spent in cognitive behavioral interventions and three employment sectors – construction, kitchen and warehouse/retail – on future system involvement.

Study Finds Disparate Gender Differences in Victims of Child Sex Trafficking

Youth involved in sex trafficking have extensive victimization experiences during childhood, and these experiences vary by gender. In the nationally representative study, 75 percent were males and 25 percent were females. Almost two-thirds of the girls were molested as a child, half were raped, and three-fourths were emotionally abused as a child, compared to 36 percent of males who were molested, 31 percent who were raped, and 37 percent who were emotionally abused. Eighty percent of females reported three or more victimization types compared to males (49 percent), and 31 percent of females experienced all five types of prior victimization compared to 11 percent of males.

Improving release process and treatment after incarceration may reduce opioid overdoses.

New research from Tufts University School of Medicine suggests critical changes to the process of transitioning people out of jail while on substance use treatment can reduce opioid deaths among the highly susceptible population.

‘Virtual nature’ experiences reduce stress in prisons

For people who are in jails or prisons, experiencing nature virtually is usually their only option. A new study from University of Utah researchers finds that exposure to nature imagery or nature sounds decreased physiological signs of stress in the incarcerated, and spurred their interest in learning more about the habitats they experienced. The researchers also found that, in general, people didn’t strongly prefer visual to auditory nature experiences.

Study Aims to Break the Chains of Incarceration in African American Males

The majority of African American men return to prison within one to three years of their first release. A study explores why re-entry programs are not as effective for them when compared to others. Researchers suggest a holistic approach that addresses psychological and historical trauma in conjunction with the environmental factors that perpetuate the stigma justice-involved African American men experience. The approach accounts for negative associations developed in the centuries of oppression and segregation that shape their current societal interactions.

Mental Health Units in Correctional Facilities: Scarce Data but Promising Outcomes

Specialized mental health units (MHUs) may be critical to managing the high rates of serious mental illness in incarcerated populations. But research data on unit characteristics, services provided, and outcomes achieved by MHUs in correctional facilities are scarce, according to a report in the July/August issue of Harvard Review of Psychiatry. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

Place doesn’t trump race as predictor of incarceration

Steven Alvarado is the author of “The Complexities of Race and Place: Childhood Neighborhood Disadvantage and Adult Incarceration for Whites, Blacks, and Latinos,” published June 1 in the journal Socius, a study showing that for black Americans growing up in better neighborhoods doesn’t diminish the likelihood of going to prison nearly as much as it does for whites or Latinos.

Katherine Foss: author of the forthcoming book Constructing the Outbreak: Epidemics in Media & Collective Memory. University of Massachusetts Press.

https://www.mtsu.edu/faculty/katherine-foss Available to provide expertise on the potrayal of the Coronavirus in the media and in political commentary. Epidemics in Media and Collective Memory Breastfeeding discourse in media (from advertising to entertainment television) Constructions of health responsibility and representations of…

As ‘Orange is the New Black’ Ends, UNLV Professor Explores How Conditions Have Changed for Incarcerated Women

The Litchfield Correctional Facility in upstate New York might be the fictitious background of Netflix’s hit series “Orange is the New Black.” But the stories of the inmates — portrayed by Hollywood actresses — could be easily found throughout real…