JUST-US

Addiction Treatment Adequacy Post-Incarceration

Currently, 2.2 million individuals are incarcerated in the United States (US), and approximately 600,000 are released annually. Substance use disorders (SUDs) are common in this population: ~65% meet the criteria for an SUD diagnosis (vs 5% of the general population). Post- incarceration, substance use increases considerably, – the risk of drug overdose is 9-17 times higher among formerly incarcerated individuals than in the general population. However, significant gaps in our understanding of structural and individual pathways of post-incarceration substance use limit treatment effectiveness. The proposed study will examine factors associated with changes in substance use and substance use treatment adequacy over a one- year period post-release among formerly incarcerated individuals in New York City (NYC), where opioid-related overdose rates more than doubled between 2015 and 2017 and are increasing among people of color and residents in high poverty communities. We will examine the extent to which participants receive substance use treatment services recommended by their scores on the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) patient placement criteria (PPC).

Problematic Substance Use And Child Support Order Compliance

Substance use is often overlooked as a barrier to child support compliance. To address this gap, our study assesses the extent to which problematic substance use is associated with child support compliance. Our primary goal in this task is to assess whether there are differences in compliance rates among Medicaid-insured noncustodial parents (NCPs) with problematic substance use versus otherwise-similar Medicaid-insured NCPs with no documentation of problematic substance use.

Understanding the extent and health impact of criminal legal system exposure among Black Central Brooklyn residents

While Black New Yorkers have experienced organized abandonment, public investments in the criminal legal system (CLS) have grown exponentially since the 1970s. The CLS has adversely influenced working class and communities of color, subjecting generations of people to hyper-surveillance, criminalization and incarceration, and shifting political and electoral power from New York City (NYC) to rural upstate regions of the state. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent of direct and indirect CLS exposure, and to identify associations between exposures to the CLS and health among Black residents in Central Brooklyn, one of the largest concentrations of Black people in the United States.