Session: Exploring Reentry Outcomes for Individuals Leaving Prison and Returning Home: Focusing on Behavioral Health Needs, Service Utilization, and the Impact of COVID-19 (Society for Social Work and Research 26th Annual Conference - Social Work Science for Racial, Social, and Political Justice)

Nearly 13 million people cycle into and out of prisons and local jails each year across the United States with significant negative public health consequences. Accessing community-based services is critical for their success both during and after their involvement in the criminal justice system. Justice-involved individuals have disproportionate rates of behavioral health disorders, the symptoms of which are associated with a range of negative outcomes including death and recidivism back to the criminal justice system. Further, many justice-involved individuals have poor physical health; as a group, individuals in the criminal justice system have high rates of chronic disease and are at elevated risk for a range of infectious diseases. Although physical and behavioral health disparities among justice-involved populations are well documented, there remains a gap in connecting individuals to evidence-based treatments both during and after their criminal justice involvement. Low rates of service utilization in the community are due to a range of factors including unavailable or inaccessible services, long waitlists, and high cost of services for individuals without medical insurance. Behavioral health needs and service gaps have been amplified for individuals leaving incarceration during the COVID-19 pandemic. Increasing service utilization is critical as rates of death are substantially elevated for justice-involved individuals and uncontrolled behavioral health disorder symptoms often lead individuals back into the criminal justice system. This symposium adds to the current dialogue about increasing connection to community-based resources to support individuals leaving incarceration or serving probation sentences in the community. The goal of the symposium is to highlight how elevated physical and behavioral health needs among justice-involved individuals impact a range of outcomes including death, service utilization, and subsequent criminal justice system contact and to explore how COVID-19-restrictions have complicated reentry for individuals releasing during the pandemic. Symposium members present empirical evidence on the intersection of physical and behavioral health on reentry outcomes for individuals involved in the criminal justice system. Presenters detail: 1) findings from a longitudinal study that tests the effect of behavioral health treatment on recidivism, and assesses the degree to which the effect of behavioral health treatment depends on disorder and service type; 2) preliminary trends from a multi-state intervention study exploring experiences of trauma, health-related quality-of-life, behavioral health needs, and service utilization of individuals who died after releasing from prison; and 3) findings from a study examining the impact of COVID-19-related restrictions on emotional well-being and community reintegration for individuals leaving prison. Implications for research and practice include a more comprehensive understanding how services can be better targeted for individuals impacted by the compound disadvantage of both criminal justice involvement and physical as well as behavioral health needs, especially in the context of COVID-19. Health services should be mindful not to take a one-size fits all approach. Instead, service providers should make data-driven decisions to ensure their services are targeting the most disadvantaged, thus improving the likelihood that social work can make progress towards racial, social, and political justice for justice-involved individuals and support them better to thrive in their communities.