Premium
Women in Transition: Experiences of Health and Health Care for Recently Incarcerated Women Living in Community Corrections Facilities
Author(s) -
Colbert Alison M.,
Goshin Lorie S.,
Durand Vanessa,
Zoucha Rick,
Sekula L. Kathleen
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
research in nursing and health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1098-240X
pISSN - 0160-6891
DOI - 10.1002/nur.21742
Subject(s) - optimism , prison , psychological intervention , criminal justice , health care , gerontology , mental health , economic justice , medicine , nursing , criminology , psychology , political science , psychiatry , social psychology , law
Health priorities of women after incarceration remain poorly understood, constraining development of interventions targeted at their health during that time. We explored the experience of health and health care after incarceration in a focused ethnography of 28 women who had been released from prison or jail within the past year and were living in community corrections facilities. The women's outlook on health was rooted in a newfound core optimism, but this was constrained by their pressing health‐related issues; stress and uncertainty; and the pressures of the criminal justice system. These external forces threatened to cause collapse of women's core optimism. Findings support interventions that capitalize on women's optimism and address barriers specific to criminal justice contexts. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.