Policy and public communication methods among U.S. state prisons during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Throughout the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, our research team monitored and documented policy changes in United States (U.S.) prison systems. Data sources included prison websites and official prison social media accounts. Over 2500 data sources relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic in U.S. prisons were located and summarized in to five different categories: 1) prevention, 2) case identification and intervention, 3) movement, 4) social communication and connection, and 5) programming, recreation, and privileges. RESULTS: All state prison systems reportedly enacted multiple policies intended to limit the spread of COVID-19 during the pandemic. Document analysis revealed that the most commonly released policies were restrictions on social contacts and privileges, basic preventive measures (e.g., distribution of masks), and basic case identification measures (e.g., verbal screening and temperature checks). Utilization of social media for policy communication varied significantly across states, though relevant data was more often released on Facebook than Twitter. CONCLUSIONS: Together, our work provides foundational knowledge on the wide breadth of policies that were reportedly enacted in the first year of the pandemic that may be used as a base for quantitative work on policy effectiveness and examinations of implementation.

"This Pandemic Is Making Me More Anxious about My Welfare and the Welfare of Others:" COVID-19 Stressors and Mental Health.

COVID-19 and subsequent social distancing guidelines have changed many aspects of people's daily lives including the way that they interact within their social environment. Pandemics are inherently social phenomena, and public health measures intended to curtail transmission of COVID-19 (e.g., quarantine and social distancing) have consequences for individuals with anxiety and depression. Using qualitative methods, respondents with previously diagnosed anxiety or depression identified ways in which COVID-19 affected their symptoms at multiple levels of the social ecological model (SEM). Key themes reported were organized following the SEM. Emergent themes at the individual level are isolation/loneliness, fear of contracting COVID-19, and uncertainty about the future. Themes at the interpersonal level are: fears of family contracting COVID-19, separation from family members, and domestic relationships. Themes at the level of community and societal stressors are: employment, community and societal systems, media, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings demonstrate the ways that mental health, physical health/safety, and social environments are interrelated in the experience of COVID-19 for individuals diagnosed with anxiety or depression. These findings make a significant contribution to the literature as this is the first article to document mental health stressors related to the COVID-19 pandemic among individuals with diagnosed anxiety and depressive disorders.

COVID-19 highlights the pitfalls of reliance on the carceral system as a response to addiction.

People who are incarcerated are likely to meet criteria for at least one substance use disorder and need access to treatment. Access to such interventions was limited prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and has almost certainly been restricted further due to implementation of procedures intended to stop the spread of the virus. In this brief commentary, we discuss how COVID-19 has revealed the already tenuous access that people who are incarcerated have to behavioral health services, and the pitfalls of reliance on the U.S. carceral system as a response to addiction.