Incarceration Effects on Prevention of Drug Use, STI-HIV and Recidivism

描述(申请人提供)：拟议的培训和研究是为了研究监禁对女性囚犯从大型城市监狱返回社区的公共健康影响。培训计划将为候选人提供跨学科指导，完善后续预防研究所需的理论知识和研究技能。这项拟议的研究将通过探索可能是女性囚犯独有的相关个人和社区因素，来检查吸毒复发、性传播感染/艾滋病毒风险和随着时间的推移而再次犯罪。虽然目前的监禁中有很大一部分与毒品有关，但这些毒品罪犯往往来自贫困社区。我们的目标是更好地了解监禁对女性囚犯及其社区健康的影响，以便我们可以制定针对性别的干预措施，以便成功地重新进入这些社区。为了实现这一目标，我们建议如下：1)进行定性的深入访谈，以探索妇女在获释后在监禁、健康问题和服务需求方面的经历。调查结果将用于设计以下调查问卷。2)在监狱、释放后两周和三个月对400名女性囚犯进行基线调查访谈。3)利用预订、实验室和美国2000年人口普查数据，建立社区变量，包括社区劣势、居住稳定性、集中监禁和性传播感染。这些社区变量将与调查数据相匹配，以便进行以下分析。4)测试拟议概念模型在解释监禁对女性囚犯重返社区的影响方面的有效性，并进行相应修订。将进行多层次和空间分析，以审查社区和个人因素对女性囚犯的主要结果的影响：吸毒复发、性传播感染/艾滋病毒的风险、再犯和次要结果：无家可归、就业、获得服务、与儿童团聚和心理社会痛苦。将审查社区和个人因素与妇女的社会网络和社会支助措施之间的联系。还将考察社会网络和社会支持对这些结果的影响。囚犯的健康问题是公共卫生问题，因为大多数囚犯在监狱短暂停留后返回社区。改善这一高危人群的健康将有助于保护公众的健康和福祉。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed training and research is to examine the public health impact of incarceration on female inmates' return to the community from a large urban jail. The training plan will provide interdisciplinary mentorship for the candidate in refining theoretical knowledge and research skills required for subsequent prevention research. The proposed study will examine relapse to drug use, STIs/HIV risks, and recidivism over time, by exploring related individual and community factors which may be unique to female inmates. While a large proportion of current incarcerations is drug related, these drug offenders often come from disadvantaged neighborhoods. Our goal is to better understand the impact of incarceration on the health of female inmates and their communities so that we may then develop gender specific interventions for successful reentry into those communities. To achieve this goal, we propose the following: 1) to conduct qualitative in-depth interviews to explore women's experiences with incarceration, health concerns, and service needs upon release. The findings will be used in designing the following survey questionnaire. 2) Conduct survey interviews with a cohort of 400 female inmates at baseline in jail, two weeks and three months post-release. 3) Establish community variables including community disadvantage, residential stability, concentrated incarceration and STIs, using booking, laboratory, and the US 2000 census data. These community variables will be matched with the survey data for the following analysis. 4) Test the effectiveness of the proposed conceptual model in explaining the impact of incarceration on female inmates returning to the community and revise accordingly. Multi-level and spatial analyses will be performed to examine the effects of community and individual factors on female inmates' primary outcomes: relapse to drugs, risks of STIs/HIV, recidivism and secondary outcomes: homelessness, employment, access to services, reunification with children, and psychosocial distress. The associations between community and individual factors and women's social network and social support measures will be examined. The effects of social network and social support on these outcomes will also be examined. Health problems among inmates are public health concerns, as the majority of inmates return to the community after a short stay in jail. Improving the health of this population-at-risk will help protect the health and well-being of the public.