Home      Login

Abstract: 

This research review summarizes the conclusions and major findings of the article, “Policies and Practices in the Delivery of HIV Services in Correctional Agencies and Facilities: Results From a Multisite Survey”, 19(4) Journal of Correctional Health Care 293 (Oct. 2013), Belenko, Steven et al. Prison and jail inmates are at high risk of HIV infection, yet important gaps exist in the implementation of effective HIV services for preventing, testing for, and treating HIV. Other studies of jail and prison populations have indicated substantial proportions of undetected infections; lack of opt-out, regular, or discharge testing; and failure to use evidence-based HIV education and prevention interventions. The authors of this study contend that, unless organizations and staff accept the need for and value of service improvements and until the organizational climate changes to allow innovation and changes in service delivery, such improvements are not likely to be well implemented or sustained. The authors point out that—even with some recent research and theory on integrating evidence-based health services into criminal justice settings—there has been very little research on the implementation of HIV services or on strategies for improving implementation outcomes in correctional settings. To study implementation and process improvement interventions to enhance the adoption of EBP in correctional settings, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) established the Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Studies Phase 2 (CJ-DATS) as a cooperative research program. The cooperative is developing and testing organizationlevel models that integrate public-health and public-safety approaches for inmates and persons on probation who have substance abuse disorders.

Keywords: High risk inmates; HIV services

Affiliations:  1: Ohio Supreme Court Library.