COJENT

With funding from the UCSF Department of Medicine, the public face of the COJENT Initiative was launched in 2015 at a public convening held at the San Francisco Public Library to describe the research collected to date. The community meeting was attended by over 200 professionals, community-based organizations, and criminal justice-involved older adults and their families. Subsequent working group meetings were held to identify the population’s most critical needs, the gaps in city services that prevent those needs from being met, and the resources available to improve San Francisco’s health and social services safety net for this medically vulnerable population. A final 2-day working group meeting, facilitated by outside experts in “Sequential Intercept Mapping,” resulted in a Strategic Action Plan for enhancing systems of care for medically complex criminal justice-involved populations.

Academic Products

  • Metzger L, Ahalt C, Kushel M, Riker A, Williams B. “Mobilizing cross-sector community partnerships to address the needs of criminal justice-involved older adults: A framework for action” Int J Prison Health. 2017 Sep 11; 13(3-4):173-184. PMID: 28914125.
  • Humphreys J, Ahalt C, Stijacic-Cenzer I, Williams B. Geriatrics Factors associated with Emergency Department use among older adults after release from jail” Journal of Urban Health, 2017 Dec 4; 1-11. PMID: 29204845.
  • Ahalt C, Sudore R, Bolano M, Metzger L, Darby AM, Williams B. "Teach-to-Goal" to Better Assess Informed Consent Comprehension among Incarcerated Clinical Research Participants. AMA J Ethics. 2017 Sep 01; 19(9):862-872. PMID: 28905727.
  • Brown RT, Ahalt C, Rivera J, Stijacic Cenzer I, Wilhelm A, Williams BA. Good Cop, Better Cop: Evaluation of a Geriatrics Training Program for Police. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2017 Apr 24. PMID: 28436006.
  • Bolano M, Ahalt C, Ritchie C, Stijacic-Cenzer I, Williams B, et al. Detained and Distressed: Persistent Distressing Symptoms in a Population of Older Jail Inmates. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2016 Aug 18. PMID: 27534904.
  • Ahalt C, Williams B. Reforming Solitary-Confinement Policy--Heeding a Presidential Call to Action. N Engl J Med. 2016 May 5; 374(18):1704-6. PMID: 27144846.

Future Funding and Grants Received during the course of COJENT Initiative Funding

  • The California Prison Health Care Receivership Corporation “The California Prison Health Care Quality Improvement Project” (01/01/2018 – 12/31/2018)
  • The National Palliative Care Research Center “Bringing Advance Care Planning to Prison” (07/01/2016 – 06/30/2018) – with CVP Faculty Member Rebecca Sudore
  • The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, “Assessing Medical Bed Utilization among Women in Prison” (06/15/2017 – 09/15/2018)
  • The Irish Research Council, “Leadership, Culture and Managing Prisons: Knowledge exchange between the USA and Europe” (LEADERS) (01/01/2017 – 12/31/1-17)
  • The Cambia Foundation “Leveraging compassionate release reform to advance palliative care for seriously ill prisoners, the Sojourns Scholar Leadership Program Award” (10/01/2016 – 09/30/2018)
  • The Prison Law Office “The European-American Criminal Justice Innovation Program”(01/01/2015-06/30/2018) – annual competitive renewal
  • The Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation “The health risks and costs of solitary confinement: Advancing evidence for policy reform” (01/01/2016 - 12/31/2018)

The Criminal Justice and Health Program at UCSF and the Center for Vulnerable Populations are deeply grateful to the UCSF Department of Medicine for its support. This support has been instrumental in bringing the two programs together, for developing contracts and grants both in progress and successfully received, and for mentoring junior faculty and trainees in research and manuscript preparation and publication.