Impacts of COVID-19 at the intersection of substance use disorder treatment and criminal justice systems: findings from three states

Allyson L. Dir; Martha Tillson; Matthew C. Aalsma; Michele Staton; Monte Staton; Dennis Watson

doi:10.1186/s40352-022-00184-8

Impacts of COVID-19 at the intersection of substance use disorder treatment and criminal justice systems: findings from three states

Allyson L. Dir, Martha Tillson, Matthew C. Aalsma, Michele Staton, Monte Staton, Dennis Watson

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background: Individuals with substance use disorders (SUD), particularly opioid use disorder (OUD), who are criminal justice-involved are a particularly vulnerable population that has been adversely affected by COVID-19 due to impacts of the pandemic on both the criminal justice and treatment systems. The manuscript presents qualitative data and findings exploring issues related to SUD/OUD treatment among individuals involved in the justice system and the impacts of COVID-19 on these service systems. Qualitative data were collected separately by teams from three different research hubs/sites in Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky; at each hub, data were collected from justice system personnel (n = 17) and community-level SUD/OUD providers (n = 21). Codes from two hubs were reviewed and merged to develop the cross-hub coding list. The combined codes were used deductively to analyze the third hub‘s data, and higher-level themes were then developed across all the hubs’ data. Results: Themes reflected the justice and treatment systems’ responses to COVID-19, the intersection of systems and COVID-19’s impact on providing OUD treatment for such individuals, and the use of telehealth and telejustice. Conclusions: Results highlight that despite rapid adaptations made by systems during the pandemic, additional work is needed to better support individuals with OUD who are involved in the justice system. Such work can inform longer-term public health crisis planning to improve community OUD treatment access and linkage for those who are criminal justice-involved.

Original language	English
Article number	25
Journal	Health and Justice
Volume	10
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1186/s40352-022-00184-8
State	Published - Dec 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).

Funding

All three hubs’ studies were supported by the JCOIN cooperative, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through the NIH HEAL Initiative. The authors gratefully acknowledge the collaborative contributions of NIDA and support from the following grant awards: UG1DA050065 (PI: Scott), UG1DA050070 (PI: Aalsma), UG1DA050069 (PI: Staton); as well as the Indiana University Addiction Grand Challenge project ( https://grandchallenges.iu.edu/addiction/index.html ). The contents of this publication are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NIDA, the NIH Heal Initiative, or the participating sites.

Funders	Funder number
National Institutes of Health (NIH)	UG1DA050069, UG1DA050065, UG1DA050070
Author National Institute on Drug Abuse DA031791 Mark J Ferris National Institute on Drug Abuse DA006634 Mark J Ferris National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism AA026117 Mark J Ferris National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism AA028162 Elizabeth G Pitts National Institute of General Medical Sciences GM102773 Elizabeth G Pitts Peter McManus Charitable Trust Mark J Ferris National Institute on Drug Abuse
University of Southern Indiana

Keywords

COVID-19
Decarceration
Opioid use disorder
Substance use disorder
Telehealth
Telejustice

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Law

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1186/s40352-022-00184-8

Cite this

@article{1d6a6d366e824a0c9de6207b96fe130d,

title = "Impacts of COVID-19 at the intersection of substance use disorder treatment and criminal justice systems: findings from three states",

abstract = "Background: Individuals with substance use disorders (SUD), particularly opioid use disorder (OUD), who are criminal justice-involved are a particularly vulnerable population that has been adversely affected by COVID-19 due to impacts of the pandemic on both the criminal justice and treatment systems. The manuscript presents qualitative data and findings exploring issues related to SUD/OUD treatment among individuals involved in the justice system and the impacts of COVID-19 on these service systems. Qualitative data were collected separately by teams from three different research hubs/sites in Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky; at each hub, data were collected from justice system personnel (n = 17) and community-level SUD/OUD providers (n = 21). Codes from two hubs were reviewed and merged to develop the cross-hub coding list. The combined codes were used deductively to analyze the third hub{\textquoteleft}s data, and higher-level themes were then developed across all the hubs{\textquoteright} data. Results: Themes reflected the justice and treatment systems{\textquoteright} responses to COVID-19, the intersection of systems and COVID-19{\textquoteright}s impact on providing OUD treatment for such individuals, and the use of telehealth and telejustice. Conclusions: Results highlight that despite rapid adaptations made by systems during the pandemic, additional work is needed to better support individuals with OUD who are involved in the justice system. Such work can inform longer-term public health crisis planning to improve community OUD treatment access and linkage for those who are criminal justice-involved.",

keywords = "COVID-19, Decarceration, Opioid use disorder, Substance use disorder, Telehealth, Telejustice",

author = "Dir, \{Allyson L.\} and Martha Tillson and Aalsma, \{Matthew C.\} and Michele Staton and Monte Staton and Dennis Watson",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022, The Author(s).",

year = "2022",

month = dec,

doi = "10.1186/s40352-022-00184-8",

language = "English",

volume = "10",

number = "1",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Impacts of COVID-19 at the intersection of substance use disorder treatment and criminal justice systems

T2 - findings from three states

AU - Dir, Allyson L.

AU - Tillson, Martha

AU - Aalsma, Matthew C.

AU - Staton, Michele

AU - Staton, Monte

AU - Watson, Dennis

PY - 2022/12

Y1 - 2022/12

N2 - Background: Individuals with substance use disorders (SUD), particularly opioid use disorder (OUD), who are criminal justice-involved are a particularly vulnerable population that has been adversely affected by COVID-19 due to impacts of the pandemic on both the criminal justice and treatment systems. The manuscript presents qualitative data and findings exploring issues related to SUD/OUD treatment among individuals involved in the justice system and the impacts of COVID-19 on these service systems. Qualitative data were collected separately by teams from three different research hubs/sites in Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky; at each hub, data were collected from justice system personnel (n = 17) and community-level SUD/OUD providers (n = 21). Codes from two hubs were reviewed and merged to develop the cross-hub coding list. The combined codes were used deductively to analyze the third hub‘s data, and higher-level themes were then developed across all the hubs’ data. Results: Themes reflected the justice and treatment systems’ responses to COVID-19, the intersection of systems and COVID-19’s impact on providing OUD treatment for such individuals, and the use of telehealth and telejustice. Conclusions: Results highlight that despite rapid adaptations made by systems during the pandemic, additional work is needed to better support individuals with OUD who are involved in the justice system. Such work can inform longer-term public health crisis planning to improve community OUD treatment access and linkage for those who are criminal justice-involved.

AB - Background: Individuals with substance use disorders (SUD), particularly opioid use disorder (OUD), who are criminal justice-involved are a particularly vulnerable population that has been adversely affected by COVID-19 due to impacts of the pandemic on both the criminal justice and treatment systems. The manuscript presents qualitative data and findings exploring issues related to SUD/OUD treatment among individuals involved in the justice system and the impacts of COVID-19 on these service systems. Qualitative data were collected separately by teams from three different research hubs/sites in Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky; at each hub, data were collected from justice system personnel (n = 17) and community-level SUD/OUD providers (n = 21). Codes from two hubs were reviewed and merged to develop the cross-hub coding list. The combined codes were used deductively to analyze the third hub‘s data, and higher-level themes were then developed across all the hubs’ data. Results: Themes reflected the justice and treatment systems’ responses to COVID-19, the intersection of systems and COVID-19’s impact on providing OUD treatment for such individuals, and the use of telehealth and telejustice. Conclusions: Results highlight that despite rapid adaptations made by systems during the pandemic, additional work is needed to better support individuals with OUD who are involved in the justice system. Such work can inform longer-term public health crisis planning to improve community OUD treatment access and linkage for those who are criminal justice-involved.

KW - COVID-19

KW - Decarceration

KW - Opioid use disorder

KW - Substance use disorder

KW - Telehealth

KW - Telejustice

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85135521952&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85135521952&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1186/s40352-022-00184-8

DO - 10.1186/s40352-022-00184-8

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85135521952

SN - 2194-7899

VL - 10

JO - Health and Justice

JF - Health and Justice

IS - 1

M1 - 25

ER -

Impacts of COVID-19 at the intersection of substance use disorder treatment and criminal justice systems: findings from three states

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this