Surveillance and the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic for formerly incarcerated individuals.

To date, most criminal justice research on COVID-19 has examined the rapid spread within prisons. We shift the focus to reentry via in-depth interviews with formerly incarcerated individuals in central Ohio, specifically focusing on how criminal justice contact affected the pandemic experience. In doing so, we use the experience of the pandemic to build upon criminological theories regarding surveillance, including both classic theories on surveillance during incarceration as well as more recent scholarship on community surveillance, carceral citizenship, and institutional avoidance. Three findings emerged. First, participants felt that the total institution of prison "prepared" them for similar experiences such as pandemic-related isolation. Second, shifts in community supervision formatting, such as those forced by the pandemic, lessened the coercive nature of community supervision, expressed by participants as an increase in autonomy. Third, establishment of institutional connections while incarcerated alleviated institutional avoidance resulting from hyper-surveillance, specifically in the domain of healthcare, which is critical when a public health crisis strikes. While the COVID-19 pandemic affected all, this article highlights how theories of surveillance inform unique aspects of the pandemic for formerly incarcerated individuals, while providing pathways forward for reducing the impact of surveillance.

Assessing the Delivery of the Thinking for a Change Program in Modified Formats: An Experimental Approach.

This paper evaluates whether participation in the Thinking for a Change cognitive behavioral program produces improvement in social problemsolving skills in a prison context. Data are derived from a randomized experiment, with a focus on whether improvement in social problemsolving skills varies across modified delivery formats, and whether improvements are attributable to program completion or program dosage. We find that there are significant improvements in social problem solving between the pre- and post-test, and that delivery of the curriculum using video conferencing technology or inmate co-facilitated formats produces equivalent outcomes relative to traditional classroom administration. On average, significant improvements accrue to participants who receive greater program dosage. However, program completion, commonly viewed as a primary marker of satisfactory program performance, is not associated with improvement in social problem solving. Implications of the findings for rehabilitation programming are discussed, including considerations in a pandemic context.

Frequent Drug Use and Negative Employment Outcomes among the Criminally Active.

BACKGROUND: Employment is a central component of economic independence and is widely viewed as an essential element of social control. Whether frequent drug use reduces the likelihood of employment or obstructs hours worked, wages, and job commitment is therefore an important question about which there remains uncertainty. METHODS: We improve on shortcomings of prior research through a monthly within-person analysis of a population at high-risk of both drug use and poor employment outcomes. We present multilevel models of the 18 months spent on the street preceding the arrest that led to incarceration in minimum/medium security facilities in Ohio from a random sample of 250 adult male inmates interviewed during the outset of a prison spell. RESULTS: The analysis reveals consistently strong, negative effects of frequent drug use on employment, hours worked, and wages in the month following frequent drug use, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and prescription opioids. As well, frequent drug use (with the exception of marijuana) undermines job commitment during the months that participants are employed. CONCLUSIONS: The consequences of frequent drug use for future employment are consistently negative within this criminal justice sample. Results suggest that lower levels of drug use may improve the success of postrelease employment programs. In a context of increasing concern over rising opioid and heroin, but also cocaine and marijuana abuse, the findings suggest a renewed focus on and perhaps expansion of evidence-based drug treatment among populations embedded within the criminal justice system, particularly if employment constrains criminal behavior.