Paths to Improving Pandemic Preparedness in Jails and Prisons: Perspectives of Incarcerated People and Correctional Staff

People who live and work In carcera! settings are at high risk for COVID-19.1 As of September 30, 2022, at least 622 968 people incarcerated in US prisons and 230168 staff members had been diagnosed with COVID-19, and 3185 had died.2 Compared with rates among the general population, average COVID-19 case rates in state and federal prisons are five times higher3 and mortality rates are at least double.4,5 Likewise, communities that are near correctional facilities have higher rates of COVID-19.6 Carceral systems, however, have not been fully integrated into public health responses to the pandemic. Few local governments have incorporated jails and prisons into their strategies for COVID-19 response and preparedness.7 The World Health Organization's recent comprehensive framework for COVID-19 response recommends that all countries conduct a substantive equity and inclusion analysis to inform programming, which should rely on "meaningful participation, collaboration, and consultation with subpopulations experiencing poverty and social exclusion. Because of this, it went entirely unenforced because enforcing rules in a carceral setting leads to conflict. Some people said joint vaccination and testing campaigns would facilitate trust in both groups;others said mental health services for correctional staff would foster professionalism in their interactions with incarcerated people.

Substance use workforce training needs during intersecting epidemics: an analysis of events offered by a regional training center from 2017 to 2020.

BACKGROUND: Intersecting opioid overdose, COVID-19, and systemic racism epidemics have brought unprecedented challenges to the addiction treatment and recovery workforce. From 2017 to 2020, the New England Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) collected data in real-time on the training and technical assistance (TA) requested and attended by the front-line workforce. This article synthesizes practice-based evidence on the types of TA requests, topics of TA, attendance numbers, and socio-demographics of TA attendees over a 3-year period spanning an unprecedented public health syndemic. METHODS: We assessed TA events hosted by the New England ATTC using SAMHSA's Performance Accountability and Reporting System post-event survey data from 2017 to 2020. Events were coded by common themes to identify the most frequently requested training types/topics and most frequently attended training events. We also evaluated change in training topics and attendee demographics over the three-year timeline. RESULTS: A total of 258 ATTC events reaching 10,143 participants were analyzed. The number of TA events and attendance numbers surged in the 2019-2020 fiscal year as TA events shifted to fully virtual during the COVID-19 pandemic. The absolute number of opioid-related events increased, but the relative proportion remained stable over time. The relative proportions of events and attendance rates focused on evidence-based practice and health equity both increased over the 3-year period, with the largest increase after the onset of the pandemic and the murder of George Floyd. As events shifted to virtual, events were attended by providers with a broader range of educational backgrounds. CONCLUSIONS: Results of the current analysis indicate that the demand for TA increased during the pandemic, with a prioritization of TA focused on evidence-based practice and health equity. The practice-based evidence generated from the New England ATTC may help other training and TA centers to anticipate and nimbly respond to the needs of the workforce in the face of the intersecting epidemics.

Using implementation interventions and peer recovery support to improve opioid treatment outcomes in community supervision: Protocol.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose is to determine whether a facilitated local change team (LCT) intervention improves linkage to medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) and implementation outcomes, and whether participant-level outcomes are further enhanced by use of peer support specialists (PSS). METHODS: This Type 1 hybrid implementation-effectiveness study involves a pre-post design (implementation study) followed by a randomized trial of PSS (effectiveness study). Participants are at least 114 justice and service staff from 7 sites in three states: probation officers, community treatment providers, a supervisor from each agency, and key stakeholders. The study will recruit up to 680 individuals on probation from seven adult community probation offices; eligible individuals will be recently committed, English speakers, with opioid use disorder (OUD). Core Implementation Study: The study will use the exploration, preparation, implementation, sustainability (EPIS) framework to guide system-change through facilitated LCTs of probation and community treatment staff given a core set of implementation strategies to set goals. The study will collect program-level and staff survey data at the end of each EPIS stage. Implementation outcomes: Organizational engagement in MOUD (primary), plus changes in staff knowledge/attitudes and organizational outcomes (secondary). Effectiveness Study of PSS: After completing implementation, the study will randomize adults on probation to receive PSS vs. treatment as usual, with assessments at baseline, 3, 6 and 12 months. Effectiveness outcomes include participant engagement in MOUD (primary), probation revocation, illicit opioid use, and overdoses. Other aims include identifying barriers and facilitators, and cost-benefit analysis of PSS. Adaptations in response to COVID-19 included moving many procedures to remote methods.