Session: Health and Behavioral Health in Criminal Legal Settings: Trends and Challenges in Identifying and Addressing Pressing Issues (Society for Social Work and Research 28th Annual Conference - Recentering & Democratizing Knowledge: The Next 30 Years of Social Work Science)

Background: This symposium explores concerns and suggests solutions to the complex challenge of producing high-quality continuity of health and behavioral health care for individuals involved in the criminal legal system (CLS). Individuals across all levels of the CLS experience higher rates of socio-emotional barriers. For example, incarcerated individuals experience higher rates of victimization and attempted suicide than those without CLS involvement. For individuals in the prison environment poor health and behavioral health care can elevate levels of stress and depression. Moreover, staff face increasing demands and challenges with limited resources. Practitioners and researchers alike seek to find innovative ways to improve the conditions for those involved in the CLS. Some solutions include reimagining the collaboration and connection between individuals working in community supervision or correction settings and practitioners in the community. When officers and staff have training, collaborative colleagues, and supportive environments, they are better able to serve clients and reduce the deleterious outcomes that happen in poor conditions with limited resources.

Methods: Four papers are presented about the challenges faced by staff and individuals housed in correctional institutions. Frist, survey reports from 461 incarcerated men demonstrate the high rates of trauma and substance use in a prison. The second paper discusses a training delivered to 136 officers designed to increase officer knowledge on transgender rights and needs during incarceration. Third, results from interviews and surveys with staff (n=303) and people incarcerated (n=490) in a maximum-security prison are discussed. People incarcerated in the prison identify health and wellbeing needs and the challenges they pose while incarcerated, especially in understaffed environments. Lastly, the fourth paper overviews the areas in which officers and incarcerated individuals identify health and safety concerns within a prison environment. These reports demonstrate how similarly everyone living and working in a prison view the environment and needed changes. Each presentation presents important implications for how the work can influence substantial changes in how departments operate.

Importance: As social work focuses on decarceration work, work to disrupt and move forward current practices is necessary. The works presented in this panel integrate social work core values with the criminal legal system practices to push for rethinking current correctional practices. Many corrections systems focus on punishment rather than rehabilitation and the works presented identify malleable intervention points to improve the living and working conditions in prisons.