Service Utilization & Death Among Individuals with Incarceration Histories Cover Image

Service Utilization & Death Among Individuals with Incarceration Histories

Published: | Author: Tanya Renn, Christopher Veeh, Stephen Tripodi, Carrie Pettus-Davis, Megan Vogt

Individuals releasing from prison have a higher death rate than the general population. Few studies have explored pre-incarceration service utilization and health among those who die after prison. This paper fills the gap by exploring service usage and health trends among individuals who died and those who survived.

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Trauma-Based Intervention for Adults Releasing from Jail

Trauma-Based Intervention for Adults Releasing from Jail

Published: | Author: Stephen Tripodi, Tanya Renn, Carrie Pettus, Elizabeth Curley, Laura Bedard

Learn more about an innovative trauma-based intervention delivered to individuals releasing from a local jail in Florida. This report highlights all aspects of the study, showcases participants' perceptions of participation in trauma-based programming, and presents data on how the intervention affected participants' well-being and behavioral health after completion. 

Category: Trauma
jsswr

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
trauma before jail

Traumatic experiences before incarceration in a county jail

Published: | Author: Stephen Tripodi, Elizabeth Curley, Sierra Ross

This report describes the traumatic experiences of individuals prior to their incarceration in a county jail. Nearly 70% of study participants experienced a traumatic event in the year prior to their incarceration, with the majority of those affected reporting more than one traumatic event. Among study participants, 24% were violently assaulted, 15% lost a loved one to homicide, 18% witnessed a serious injury or death, 26% experienced a serious health incident, and 35% received news of the death or injury of a loved one. 

Category: Trauma
Smart Decarceration Practice Behaviors for Social Work Competencies

Smart Decarceration Practice Behaviors for Social Work Competencies

Published: | Author: Phillipe Copeland, Daniel Jacob, Diane Young, Annie Grier, Stephanie Kennedy, Stephen Tripodi

This tool was conceived by a members of the “Promote Smart Decarceration” Grand Challenge Education Working Group to provide guidance for social work administrators, instructors, and students on how to effectively incorporate “smart decarceration” as a focus for social work education using the CSWE social work competencies.

This tool incorporates smart decarceration-related practice behaviors for ready application into both classroom curricula and field practicums. 

Category: Grand Challenges, Smart Decarceration
CriminalJusticeandBehavior

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
quality of life

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
The Intersectional Effects of Race and Gender on Time to Reincarceration

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.

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
The Relationship Between Interpersonal Victimization and Women’s Criminal Sentencing: A Latent Class Analysis

The Relationship Between Interpersonal Victimization and Women’s Criminal Sentencing: A Latent Class Analysis

Published: | Author: Stephanie Kennedy, Annelise M. Mennicke, Megan Feely, Stephen Tripodi

Latent class analysis was used to identify subgroups of incarcerated women differentiated by experiences of child abuse and intimate partner violence victimization. Four classes were extracted—Low Victimization, Child Abuse, Lifetime Physical and Psychological Abuse, and Lifetime Sexual Abuse; classes were then related to current sentence length, holding criminological predictors constant. Women in the Child Abuse and Lifetime Sexual Abuse classes had significantly longer sentences, despite the lack of significant between-class differences on criminological predictors.

Category: Incarcerated Women, Trauma, Sentencing
Incarcerated Women’s Experiences and Perceptions of Participating in Research

Incarcerated Women’s Experiences and Perceptions of Participating in Research

Published: | Author: Lisa Schelbe, Amanda Hardwick, Ashley N. Wilfong, Cynthia E. Hanifin, Stephen Tripodi, Carrie Pettus-Davis

The research process within prisons has largely considered researchers’ perspectives. Only one known study explicitly examined incarcerated persons’ perceptions and no known studies have explored incarcerated persons’ experiences with research on sensitive topics. This study examines incarcerated women’s experiences with participating in research on victimization. A thematic analysis was conducted on responses to open-ended questions about participating in a research study from 227 women in two prisons who participated in a study about victimization.

Category: Incarcerated Women, Trauma
Evaluating Seeking Safety for Women in Prison: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Evaluating Seeking Safety for Women in Prison: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Published: | Author: Stephen Tripodi, Annelise M. Mennicke, Susan McCarter, Katie Ropes Berry

This study assessed the effectiveness of Seeking Safety on depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with incarcerated women.

Category: Incarcerated Women
Gender differences in experiences of social support among men and women releasing from prison

Gender differences in experiences of social support among men and women releasing from prison

Published: | Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Christopher Veeh, Maxine Davis, Stephen Tripodi

Positive social support is critically important to postprison well-being outcomes. However, researchers and program developers are still trying to understand how to best promote stable and sustainable social support for formerly incarcerated individuals during reentry to the community. We sought to add to the body of knowledge on social support and prisoner reentry by comparing men and women releasing from prison on the quality (e.g., positive or negative) and amount of informal social support.

Category: Reentry, Incarcerated Women, Gender Differences
Assessing Attitude and Reincarceration Outcomes Associated With In-Prison Domestic Violence Treatment Program Completion

Assessing Attitude and Reincarceration Outcomes Associated With In-Prison Domestic Violence Treatment Program Completion

Published: | Author: Annelise M. Mennicke, Stephen Tripodi, Christopher Veeh, Dina Wilke, Stephanie Kennedy

Studies indicate that as many as 30%–56% of incarcerated men have perpetrated domestic violence, and that factors related to domestic violence perpetration are associated with long-term recidivism after release. The current study evaluates the effectiveness of an in-prison domestic violence treatment program called STOP and Change Direction to increase positive attitudes toward women, decrease levels of criminal thinking, and reduce general recidivism rates for program completers. 

Category: Trauma, In-Prison Intervention
Examining Dose–Response Relationships Between Childhood Victimization, Depression, Symptoms of Psychosis, and Substance Misuse for Incarcerated Women

Examining Dose–Response Relationships Between Childhood Victimization, Depression, Symptoms of Psychosis, and Substance Misuse for Incarcerated Women

Published: | Author: Stephanie Kennedy, Stephen Tripodi, Carrie Pettus-Davis, Jaime Ayers

The current study uses the dose–response model to examine the relationships between childhood victimization events and subsequent depression, symptoms of psychosis, and substance misuse in a sample of 230 randomly selected incarcerated women in the United States. Results on the frequency of victimization were mixed. In this sample, both frequency of physical abuse and frequency of sexual abuse significantly predicted current symptoms of psychosis, but only frequency of physical abuse significantly predicted substance misuse.

Category: Trauma, Mental Health, Substance Use