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Academic Publications
Incarcerated individuals’ experiences of COVID-19 in the United States
Published:
| Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Stephanie Kennedy, Christopher Veeh
This study examines steps taken by correctional staff and incarcerated individuals to reduce transmission risk for COVID-19. Data were drawn from interviews with 327 individuals incarcerated in 3 states. Overall, 9.9% of participants contracted COVID-19. Most participants wore face masks, washed hands, and practiced physical distancing. Participants reported that most facilities suspended visitation and volunteers, provided face masks, and sanitized. Few individuals were released early. Data indicate early adoption of many CDC guidelines, although state variation existed.
Category: COVID-19
Support4Families: A Proposed Intervention Model to Support Families of Individuals Returning Home From Incarceration
Published:
| Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis
Leaving incarceration and returning home (i.e., reentry) affects individuals and their families; 90% of individuals releasing from prison rely on family for critical reentry supports. Although positive family support during this period is empirically linked to an individual’s success, providing support can place a substantial emotional, social, and fiscal toll on family units.
Category: Social Support
Trauma Informed Care Groups with Incarcerated Women: Comparing Seeking Safety and STAIR
Published:
| Author: Stephen Tripodi, Michael Killian, Matt Gilmore, Elizabeth Curley, Lauren Herod
Almost all incarcerated women have experienced at least one lifetime traumatic event that often leads to limited coping skills and mental health problems. This study evaluated two different trauma-informed care groups for incarcerated women – Seeking Safety and STAIR – and found that participants who participated in either program had significant improvements in anxiety, depression, and coping self-efficacy. Results indicate the importance of screening for trauma and offering correctional-based programming to address trauma before release
Category: Trauma, Incarcerated Women
The Role of Preparatory Programming in Increasing the Effectiveness of a Sex Offender Treatment Intervention
Published:
| Author: Tanya Renn, Christopher Veeh, Melissa D. Grady, David Edwards, Carrie Pettus-Davis, Katherine Kelton
Increasing the effectiveness of programs designed to treat individuals who have sexually offended is a critical step in reducing the rates of sexual violence in our communities. Yet, the research on such programs have yielded inconsistent results with regards to their effectiveness in reducing sexual recidivism among participants. Some researchers have explored whether the dose of treatment impacts recidivism, but there remains limited knowledge around the dose-response relationship for individuals who have sexually offended.
Category: Sex Offenders
Childhood Polyvictimization and Mental Health Issues among Incarcerated Women
Published:
| Author: Stephanie Kennedy, Annelise M. Mennicke, Rajib Paul
Results from a cluster analysis identified four unique childhood polyvictimization: Low Victimization, High Witnessing Violence, High Sexual Abuse, and Severe Polyvictimization. The odds of reporting suicidal ideation, psychosis, and dissociation were higher for women in the High Witnessing, High Sexual Abuse, and/or Severe Polyvictimization clusters compared to the Low Victimization cluster, although pairwise comparisons indicated no significant differences between the three higher-level polyvictimization clusters.
Category: Incarcerated Women, Trauma, Mental Health
‘I took care of my kids’: Mothering while incarcerated
Published:
| Author: Stephanie Kennedy, Annelise M. Mennicke, Chelsea Allen
Research on incarcerated parents often focuses on their children, which obscures incarcerated mothers’ needs related to health and wellness. The prison environment offers few opportunities to foster mother-child connection; most mothers never receive even one visit from their children. Incarcerated mothers contextually framed crime as protecting and providing for children and identified community-based and in-prison service gaps.
Category: Incarcerated Women
Early Lessons from the Multistate Study of the 5-Key Model for Reentry
Published:
| Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Stephanie Kennedy
This chapter presents key themes that have emerged during Phase 1 of the 5-Key Model study, currently being implemented in Florida, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Texas. In addition to describing the 5-Key Model intervention and the study sample, the authors explore the psychological toll of reentry on individuals and families, barriers to reentry success and how the 5-Key Model responds to those barriers, and the early deaths of study participants after they released from incarceration and returned home.
Category: Reentry, Well-Being, 5-Key Model for Reentry
Intervention development study of the five-key model for reentry: An evidence-driven prisoner reentry intervention
Published:
| Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Tanya Renn, Christopher Veeh, Jacob Eikenberry
Over the past decade and a half, substantial resources were poured into the development of prisoner reentry programs. However, the excitement that surrounded the initial rollout of reentry programs has begun to wane from a lack of substantive change to the number of individuals who return to prison. Therefore, this article details the development of an intervention that can provide a new path forward for prisoner reentry programs.
Category: 5-Key Model for Reentry, Well-Being
Pathways to Recidivism for women released from prison:A Mediated model
Published:
| Author: Stephen Tripodi, Carrie Pettus-Davis, Kimberly Bender, Michael Fitzgerald, Tanya Renn, Stephanie Kennedy
Findings showed no direct relationship between childhood trauma and reincarceration for women in the sample, although there was a significant mediated relationship from childhood trauma to depression to reincarceration. Results suggest the importance of addressing incarcerated women’s trauma before release, assessing for depression, and using empirically-supported interventions to treat depression when applicable.
Category: Incarcerated Women, Reentry
Measurement in Correctional Health Research: Unique Challenges and Strategies for Enhanced Rigor
Published:
| Author: Stephanie Prost, Stephanie Kennedy, Jennifer Peck, Mary Bouchaud, Deborah Shelton
It is essential to identify valid and reliable measurement strategies to enhance accurate, comprehensive, and meaningful health assessment and evaluation to improve health outcomes among justice-involved and incarcerated populations. This article identifies and describes three primary challenges related to measurement in correctional health care and makes four recommendations for enhanced measurement rigor from a social justice perspective.
Category: Research
The Quality of Life Perception Gap in Prison Health Care Settings
Published:
| Author: Stephanie Prost, Stephen Tripodi, Jeffrey Lacasse
Peer caregivers are specially-trained incarcerated persons who support the needs of patients in correctional health care settings. Their role is of particular importance in light of the growing population of older adult prisoners with complex health problems in U.S. prisons. The purpose of the current study was to examine the disparity between patient and peer caregiver ratings of patient quality of life in a sample of correctional health dyads (n = 52) in a state prison system.
Category: Well-Being
What Trauma Looks Like for Incarcerated Men: A Study of Men’s Lifetime Trauma Exposure in Two State Prisons
Published:
| Author: Maria Morrison, Carrie Pettus-Davis, Tanya Renn, Christopher Veeh, Christopher Weatherly
While it is understood that high rates of trauma exposure are common among incarcerated male populations, there is limited data on the nature of the trauma exposure. This study examined the trauma histories of a randomly selected sample of 67 men incarcerated in the Missouri Department of Corrections. The analyses revealed several patterns among study participants, including near universal trauma exposure in adolescence with the most frequent exposures involving witnessing or being proximate to violent deaths of family and friends.
Category: Trauma
The Intersectional Effects of Race and Gender on Time to Reincarceration
Published:
| Author: Katie Ropes Berry, Stephanie Kennedy, Margaret Lloyd, Christopher Veeh, Stephen Tripodi
People of color are disproportionately incarcerated and reincarcerated after release. In an 8-year analysis of more than 21,000 individuals leaving state prisons, Black men were incarcerated more often and more quickly when compared to all other race/gender groups. However, with two exceptions (age at intake and marital status), Black men had lower risk scores on most variables when compared to other members of the sample. The interaction of race and gender was a potent predictor of time to reincarceration, even when controlling for a range of identified risk factors.
Category: Reentry, Recidivism, Racial and Gender BIas
The Relationship Between Severe Mental Disorders and Recidivism in a Sample of Women Released from Prison.
Published:
| Author: Erin A. King, Stephen Tripodi, Christopher Veeh
Women are one of the fastest growing sectors of the prison population, and have different pathways into prison and differing needs during the reentry process when compared to men. Women report higher levels of mental health problems overall, and report more severe symptomatology. The current study focuses on the role of severe mental disorders (SMDs) for 2,311 women released from prison and how SMDs relate to recidivism. Women diagnosed with SMDs were 16% more likely to have recidivated at eight years post-release compared with women who were not diagnosed with an SMD (p < .05).
Category: Reentry, Recidivism, Mental Health, Incarcerated Women
Proposing a population-specific intervention approach to treat trauma among men during and after incarceration.
Published:
| Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Tanya Renn, Jeffrey Lacasse, Robert Motley
A significant treatment gap exists for incarcerated men with lifetime traumatic experiences. A small research base for trauma interventions for incarcerated women is emerging, but incarcerated men have largely been ignored. Men comprise 90% of the incarcerated population and are at the greatest risk to be rearrested for a new crime after release.