Jail-to-Community Medication-Assisted Treatment: Perceptions of clients and staff

Authors

  • Michele P. Bratina
  • Michael E. Antonio
  • Mary P. Brewster
  • Jacqueline Carsello

Keywords:

addiction, correctional treatment, MAT, re-entry, naltrexone, Vivitrol

Abstract

This article presents the perceptions of clients and staff involved in a jail-to-community medication-assisted treatment (JTCMAT) program involving the administration of the extended-release injectable naltrexone drug, Vivitrol. The program was delivered in one rural county jail in the northeastern region of the United States. Through semi-structured interviews with inmates and key program staff, we gathered data regarding the criminal history, history of victimization, and mental health status of inmates enrolled in the JTCMAT program. We also investigated inmates’ and service providers’ perceptions of the strengths and weaknesses of the JTCMAT program itself. Findings suggest a general level of satisfaction among program clients and service providers, although some challenges following reentry were identified.

Author Biographies

  • Michele P. Bratina

    Michele P. Bratina is co-author with James Fagin of “CJ 2019” (Pearson). She is also the author of “Forensic Mental Health: Framing Integrated Solutions” (Routledge). Dr. Bratina has taught undergraduate and graduate-level courses in forensic mental health, deviance, criminology, and theories of crime and delinquency. Previously, she was the Forensic Adult and Children’s Mental Health Coordinator for the Florida Department of Children and Families. In that position, she worked with citizens, providers, and other community professionals to develop solutions for cases involving offending behaviours and victimisation of the families and children in the judicial circuit. She has published her research in the Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice and in the International Journal of Police Science and Management.

  • Michael E. Antonio

    Michael E. Antonio has extensive work experience in the fields of Psychology and Criminal Justice. He worked for the Criminal Justice Research Centre at Northeastern University in Boston, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a Research and Evaluation Manager at Pennsylvania’s Department of Corrections and Pennsylvania’s Board of Probation & Parole. Currently, he is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and continues conducting original research studies and secondary analysis of existing datasets related to topics of interest including correctional rehabilitative programs.

  • Mary P. Brewster

    Mary P. Brewster has conducted research related to substance abuse, alcohol prevention programs, drug court, mental health court, and stalking, and has published articles in Criminal Justice Policy Review, Journal of Criminal Justice Education, Journal of Drug Issues, Journal of Family Violence, Victims and Offenders, Violence and Victims, Prison Journal, Social Pathology, Family & Intimate Partner Violence Quarterly, Federal Probation, and Women & Criminal Justice. Additionally, she has authored many book reviews, research reviews, encyclopedia entries, and book chapters, and has been a contributing editor of Criminal Justice Research Review, associate editor of a criminal justice encyclopedia, editor of the book Stalking: Psychology, Risk Factors, Interventions, and Law, co-editor of two editions of Animal Cruelty: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Understanding, and co-editor of Pennsylvania's Criminal Justice System. She has served as Principal Investigator on a National Institute of Justice grant and has worked on numerous other grant-supported research projects.

  • Jacqueline Carsello

    Jacqueline Carsello is a graduate of the MS Program in Criminal Justice at West Chester University of Pennsylvania and intends to pursue doctoral studies. She has conducted research about corrective rape in South Africa, the deadnaming and overkill of transgender women, and the stigmatisation and sterilisation of the LGBT community and people with mental illness. She has assisted with research relating to substance abuse, auditory hallucinations, and crisis intervention team programs. She has presented her research at annual meetings of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, American Society of Criminology, and the Northeastern Association of Criminal Justice Sciences. She has also delivered talks related to research pursuits in post-graduate courses and in regional student research forums.

References

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Published

2023-02-04

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 2 (2020)

Section

Research Articles

License

Authors retain copyright in their articles and grant SALUS the right of first publication. The work is simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as appropriate credit is given to the author(s) and the journal, a link to the license is provided, and any changes made are indicated.

How to Cite

Jail-to-Community Medication-Assisted Treatment: Perceptions of clients and staff. (2023). Salus Journal, 8(2), 24-54. https://journals.csu.domains/index.php/salusjournal/article/view/116