Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Policies and Practices in the Delivery of HIV Services in Correctional Agencies and Facilities

2013; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 19; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/1078345813499313

1940-5200

Steven Belenko, Matthew L. Hiller, Christy A. Visher, Michael D. Miller, Daniel J. O’Connell, William M. Burdon, Jennifer Pankow, Jennifer G. Clarke, Carrie B. Oser,

Homelessness and Social Issues

HIV risk is disproportionately high among incarcerated individuals. Corrections agencies have been slow to implement evidence-based guidelines and interventions for HIV prevention, testing, and treatment. The emerging field of implementation science focuses on organizational interventions to facilitate adoption and implementation of evidence-based practices. A survey of correctional agency partners from the Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Studies (CJ-DATS) revealed that HIV policies and practices in prevention, detection, and medical care varied widely, with some corrections agencies and facilities closely matching national guidelines and/or implementing evidence-based interventions. Others, principally attributed to limited resources, had numerous gaps in delivery of best HIV service practices. A brief overview is provided of a new CJ-DATS cooperative research protocol, informed by the survey findings, to test an organization-level intervention to reduce HIV service delivery gaps in corrections.