Project Type(s):
Population Health/Implementation

Over 65% of people who are incarcerated have a substance use disorder (SUD). Many jails and prisons provide substance use treatment, including behavioral and pharmacotherapy, and SUD identification is the first step. Prisons and jails are a distinct setting for SUD assessment, and tools used for SUD screening in community settings may not perform the same way in carceral settings. This systematic review will identify psychometric evaluation studies in carceral settings of screening and diagnostic tools for SUDs, generally, or specific SUDs (excluding alcohol and nicotine). Additionally, will use and adapt an existing clinical usability scale and develop new metrics to assess acceptability of screening tool use in carceral settings for a person-centered evaluation. This will be guided by further analysis of interviews with prison staff and people with lived experience of incarceration. The additional assessments will capture potential barriers and facilitators to SUD assessment in jails and prisons as they represent resource-limited settings with unique challenges compared to other health systems. The goals for the study are: 1) to help carceral facilities make informed decisions about SUD assessment, 2) to reveal key gaps in the literature, and 3) to inform the development and testing of future tools.

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