Shootings by police are an urgent public health crisis in the US, having reverberating impacts not only for direct victims but for loved ones and community members. Even so, our understanding of these impacts has been hampered by numerous data limitations, including a focus on fatal shootings, limited granularity of data pertaining to shooting features (e.g., distance from and time since shootings; victim characteristics) and a reliance on purely ecological and/or cross-sectional data. We outline a new data resource established by our team to address critical gaps in understanding the health impacts of shootings of non-officers by police in the United States (US) by linking geocoded fatal and nonfatal shooting incidents (from the Augmented Gun Violence Archive, or a-GVA) with individual-level longitudinal health data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). Add Health data collection began in 1994–1995 with a nationally representative sample of 20,745 adolescents (ages 12–19) and follows participants into adulthood; while Add Health includes five waves of longitudinal follow-up, the present linkage focuses on Wave V (2016–2018), when participants were aged 33–44. This resource links Wave V respondents (n = 11,369) to temporally coded and geocoded shootings by police incidents, which captures variation in geographic and temporal proximity of shooting events (within 20 miles of respondents’ homes and 12 months of their Wave V interview). The dataset includes rich individual-level data on mental health, physical health, and biomarkers, as well as contextual measures of fatal and nonfatal shootings by police (e.g., gun policy data) and incident characteristics (e.g., victim demographics, mental health symptoms involvement). Ultimately, this data resource is the first-of-its-kind resource and may enable research on how fatal and nonfatal shootings by police and their features (i.e., distance from residence, time since shooting, victim characteristics) relate to health in a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults.
Mental health difficulties are common among people in Scottish prisons. Although animal-assisted interventions (AAIs) have been associated with a range of psychological and social benefits, these interventions are not routinely embedded within custodial care. Little is known about forensic practitioners’ experiences and perceptions of dog-based AAIs across Scottish prisons and secure forensic mental health services. This qualitative study explored the perspectives of 15 forensic practitioners working in Scottish custodial and forensic mental health settings. Participation was open to practitioners with direct experience of incorporating or delivering dog-based AAIs and to those with relevant forensic practice or implementation knowledge. Semi-structured interviews explored practitioners’ perceptions of the acceptability, feasibility, benefits and challenges of delivering dog-based AAIs in custodial and forensic mental health settings. Data were analysed using inductive reflexive thematic analysis within a contextualist framework. Practitioners associated dog-based AAIs with a calmer interpersonal atmosphere characterised by emotional settling, non-judgemental connection, disclosure and more constructive group interaction. Some practitioners described or anticipated brief relief from occupational strain among staff and linked direct observation of sessions with greater willingness to support delivery. Practitioners generally regarded the sessions as acceptable to people receiving them. Staff acceptance was more variable and appeared to be shaped by direct experience and perceptions of legitimacy. Feasibility was described as fragile, with delivery dependent on staffing and the stability of daily routines. Practitioners also emphasised the importance of appropriate training, sustainable funding, animal welfare safeguards and careful management of endings. Practitioners, most of whom had direct experience of implementing dog-based AAIs, viewed these interventions as having the potential to support health and well-being within custodial and forensic mental health services when delivery was supported by stable operational arrangements and robust welfare safeguards. Future research should include the perspectives of people receiving dog-based AAIs to examine whether the changes described by practitioners extend beyond individual sessions.
We seek to examine the effects of critical time intervention (CTI) on rearrest and the rate of contact with homelessness services among men with self-reported mental health and social vulnerabilities specifically at-risk of homelessness who receive services immediately upon jail release between 11/06/2017 and 02/10/2020 in Illinois. We use multivariate analysis to compare outcomes among men randomly assigned to Cook County Jail’s Supportive Release Center (SRC) plus CTI services to outcomes among men assigned to receive SRC services alone. Over the 2-year post-release period, CTI-assigned participants experienced an average of 0.2 more contacts with homelessness service providers than participants assigned to SRC alone (p<.001), and 0.17 more contacts with homelessness services over the 3-year period (p<.001). We observed no clinically or statistically significant differences across groups in rearrest outcomes at 3 months (p=.82), 2 years (p=.82), or 3 years (p=.82) post-discharge. CTI services facilitated additional linkages to housing services among persons leaving the jail setting, though these interventions appeared to bring no incremental reduction in rearrest outcomes. Focused interventions provided upon jail release may facilitate provision of long-term housing services. Future research should explore more-focused or intensive interventions to reduce rearrest risk in this population.
Permanent contraception remains the most commonly utilized contraceptive method in the United States but given a historic and contemporary legacy of nonconsensual sterilization of incarcerated persons, its routine use during custody is discouraged. However, of the 58,000 pregnant individuals experiencing incarceration each year, many may request the procedure. Our objective was to explore the perspectives and experiences of pregnant and postpartum people with a history of incarceration who request permanent contraception, an understudied population with multiple barriers to research participation. We recruited and interviewed individuals who experienced pregnancy or postpartum and requested permanent contraception while incarcerated in North Carolina. We applied narrative portraiture analysis, a qualitative analytic tool for small samples, to the interviews to contextualize research findings within broader social narratives and to avoid systematically deconstructing each unique narrative. A codebook was developed based on narrative elements and phenomena of interest. We interviewed four participants, none of whom had their request for permanent contraception fulfilled while in custody. Intersecting phenomena of interest included incarceration as motivation for permanent contraception, internalized stigma entangled with a desire for bodily autonomy, and comparing care treatment during incarceration and in the community. All participants supported having the choice of permanent contraception but shared different perspectives on the potential for coercion during incarceration. Participants vehemently endorsed that people should be able to make autonomous choices regarding their reproductive futures during incarceration while acknowledging the influence incarceration had on decision-making. Our findings provide important insights into how carceral conditions shape reproductive autonomy and decision-making and highlight the need for well-developed ethical guidance for physicians approaching the care of pregnant people experiencing incarceration who request permanent contraception.
People on remand experience a custodial context distinct from those sentenced to imprisonment. This is often marked by legal uncertainty, restricted autonomy, and limited access to activity and support. The specific stressors experienced during remand have been identified in individual studies but have not yet been mapped across the literature. This scoping review seeks to map the stressors identified across the current remand literature, and extract any patterns, practice implications or priority areas for future research. This review followed PRISMA-ScR guidance and used the PCC framework. Scopus, MEDLINE, and APA PsycInfo were searched from inception to February 2026, with additional studies identified through reference list screening. Eligible studies were English-language, peer-reviewed primary research reporting stressors directly experienced during remand custody. The search identified 1,064 database records and eight additional sources. After screening, 53 studies were included. The evidence base was geographically and methodologically diverse, spanning 24 countries and comprising quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods studies. Fourteen recurrent stressor domains were identified: legal uncertainty, court attendance, confinement, inactivity, isolation, family separation, victimisation, procedural injustice, living conditions, unmet healthcare needs, substance withdrawal, socioeconomic strain, identity harm, and instability. Stressors commonly clustered rather than occurring in isolation, and their salience and consequences varied according to institutional conditions, socio-cultural context, and time in custody. The included longitudinal evidence identified a temporal pattern: distress was often most acute around admission and later stabilised or improved, whereas family separation and isolation could remain chronic or become increasingly harmful as remand continued. Remand is associated with a broad and recurring profile of stressors relevant to wellbeing and adjustment in custody. The findings support attention to early support during remand, the institutional conditions that may intensify stress, and more context-specific research. Future work should clarify the relative impact of different stressors, their temporal course, and their relevance across different remand populations and settings. The search strategy and eligibility criteria were registered with Open Science Framework.
