Mass Incarceration, Race Inequality, and Health
Expanding Concepts and Assessing Impacts on Well-Being
Kim Blankenship, Ana Maria del Rio Gonzalez, Danya Keene, Ali Groves, Alana Rosenberg
Structures, Health and Risk among Re-Entrants, Probationers, Partners
What Is SHARRPP?
Structures, Health and Risk among Re-entrants, Probationers and Partners (SHARRPP) was a multi-year (2009-2016) project funded by the National Institutes of Health (R01DA025021) examining drug policies as they impact on movement between the criminal justice system and the community. In turn, it explores how the incarceration-re-entry cycle produces instability in housing, employment, and relationships with impacts on sexual risks and race inequities in these risks. (Principal Investigator: Kim Blankenship)
What was the research approach?
SHARRPP surveys and interviews began the summer of 2011 and ended in the late fall of 2014. Surveys were conducted at baseline and every six months for the next two years with 302 people in New Haven, CT recently released from prison/jail or placed on probation for non-violent drug-related offenses. Of these, 45 participants also participated in a series of semi-structured, in-depth interviews over the same time. Participants were asked to refer their sexual partners to the study. From these referrals, 62 longitudinal surveys were administered and 27 semi-structured interviews were conducted with sexual partners.
SHARRPP was a collaborative partnership between American University and Yale University. This research was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA025021). It was also supported by services received from the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS at Yale University (0904005012), the Center on Health, Risk, and Society at American University, and the DC Center for AIDS Research (P30AI17970).
Keene, D. E., Smoyer, A. B., & Blankenship, K. M. (2018). Stigma, Housing and Identity after Prison. Sociological Review, 66(4), 799-815.
Keene, D. E., Rosenberg, A., Schlesinger, P., Guo, M., & Blankenship, K. M. (2018). Navigating Limited and Uncertain Access to Subsidized Housing after Prison. Housing Policy Debate, 28(2), 199-214.
Rosenberg, A., Heimer, R., Keene, D. E., Groves, A. K., & Blankenship, K. M. (2018). Drug Treatment Accessed through the Criminal Justice System: Participants’ Perspectives and Uses. Journal of Urban Health, 1-10.
Blankenship, K. M., del Rio Gonzalez, A. M., Keene, D. E., Groves, A. K., & Rosenberg, A. P. (2018). Mass Incarceration, Race Inequality, and Health: Expanding Concepts and Assessing Impacts on Well-Being. Social Science & Medicine, 215, 45-52.
Groves, A. K., Zhan, W., del Río-González, A. M., Rosenberg, A., & Blankenship, K. M. (2017). Dual Incarceration and Condom Use in Committed Relationships. AIDS and Behavior, 21(12), 3549-3556.
Rosenberg, A., Groves, A. K., & Blankenship, K. M. (2017). Comparing Black and White Drug Offenders: Implications for Racial Disparities in Criminal Justice and Reentry Policy and Programming. Journal of Drug Issues, 47(1), 132-142.
Smoyer, A. B., Kershaw, T. S., Blankenship, K. M. (2015). Confining Legitimacy: The Impact of Prison Experiences on Perceptions of Criminal Justice Legitimacy. Journal of Forensic Social Work, 5(1-3): 258-270.
Smoyer, A. B., Rosenberg, A., & Blankenship, K. M. (2014). Setting the Stage: Creating Study Sites That Promote the Safety and Dignity of Research Participants. Social Work Research, 38(3), 178-183.
Blankenship, K. M. (2014). 30 Years After Discovery of HIV Virus: The Vital Role of the Social Sciences. Huffington Post.
Blankenship, K. M. & Smoyer, A. B. (2013). Between Spaces: Understanding Movement To and From Prison as an HIV Risk Factor. In B. Sanders, Y. F. Thomas & B. G. Deeds (Eds.), Crime, HIV & Health: Intersections of Criminal Justice and Public Health Concerns (pp. 207-224). New York: Springer.
Smoyer, A. B., Blankenship, K. M., & Belt, B. (2009). Compensation for Incarcerated Research Participants: Diverse State Policies Suggest a New Research Agenda. American Journal of Public Health, 99(10), 1746-1752.
An active Community Advisory Board of community members and program administrators provided guidance in developing the research instruments and reporting on this research.
Participant Poems
Below are original poems from two SHARRPP participants that reflect their experiences of incarceration and re-entry.
About The Game
by Q. Abdul-Wakil
I wish I could save the world like so many others
Except my plan isn’t to “feed the children”
I want to educate my young brothers.
The more things change the more they remain the same.
Im talking about the hustling them streets and playin’ that game.
If it’s a game we are playing, why can’t we win?
The answer is kinda tricky
I don’t know where to begin
Ok no one in my hood owns a boat or plane
Yet on every other corner someone peddles cocaine
Or some other chemical that pollutes the brain.
On another corner a young lady sells herself
For a little drugs or a little wealth.
This ain’t no game
And this ain’t fun
If it was, why do all the young boys in da hood
Have access to a gun?
I wish I could make a bomb and pack it with college
and when it blew up it gave everyone knowledge.
I'm not talking of a school made of steel and rocks
I'm talking about about an education
from the school of hard knocks.
We need hard lessons
Because collectively we have a hard head
Everyone that plays this game
Is either in jail, or dead.
So when you ask me about the game
I gotta tell you the deal
This ain't no game,
This is real!
Cries, Thoughts, Death, Addiction, and Prison
by D. R. Hill
I’ve seen grown men cried
I’ve Cried!!
And I’ve seen grown men pray
In God we believe in
The Pain has Led us Astray
We know that Jesus is there and he always cares
But Our Hearts is Full of Burdens
Our Eyes Full of Tears
Hoping Someone Notice—But it Seems no one is aware
The pain that we feel inside
All they do is stare
Out soul full of bitterness
Our minds full of rage
Trap in this prison system
Lock like a dog on a cage
Time is passing us by
Missing the ones we love the most
All we know is the struggle
Raised in the streets, selling coke!!
Masters of our addictions—needles filled with dope!!
Our young generations-are zombies
More like eternal ghost
Secrets and worries are buried in cemeteries
It’s a dark place called Hell
So they rush there in a hurry
Prostitutes on the corners
Tricking for the next fix
They souls are so black
Addiction is something
They can’t kick
Knowing Death is on its Way
But still
They won’t quit
Kids are being born
Caught up in the mix
Gang-banging-Drug Slanging
Gun slanger
To the end
With A Ignorant Mind
Their Vision is Real Dim
The world is a dark place
And genocide
Seems to Always Win
Relevation is Relevant
1 Day
We Will Make Mends
SHARPP Team
- Kim Blankenship, PhD, MA
Principal Investigator
Professor of Sociology and Associate Dean for Research, American University - Ana Maria Del Rio Gonzalez, PhD, MA
Data Manager
Assistant Research Professor of Psychology, George Washington University - Ali Groves, PhD, MHS
Co-Investigator
Assistant Professor, Community Health and Prevention, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University - Robert Heimer, PhD
Co-Investigator and Principal Investigator on the Yale subaward
Professor of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases) and of Pharmacology, Yale School of Public Health - Alana Rosenberg, MPH
Project Manager
Research Associate, Yale School of Public Health - Penelope Schlesinger
Research Assistant
Program Administrator - Amy Smoyer, PhD
Co-Investigator
Associate Professor, Social Work, Southern Connecticut State University
The drawing displayed on this page was contributed by a participant.