Macro-level Health Considerations of Community and Criminal Justice System Relationships in North Texas

Healthy Tarrant County Collaboration, Fort Worth TX

Investigators

Abstract

Policing and incarceration are root causes of health inequity, but to date, there have been few efforts to intervene on law enforcement practices and the carceral system as structural factors shaping poor health. Addressing this gap, we propose a Community-Led Structural Intervention to Reduce Police-Related Health Inequities aimed at reducing discretionary arrests and incarceration Tarrant County, Texas. This study seeks to address the impacts of policing and incarceration on Tarrant County’s disproportionately impacted communities. The structural factors of the criminal legal system, related policy, and the role of police actions in exacerbating mental and physical health outcomes will be investigated throughout the course of the funding process. Our study will bring together a coalition of stakeholders affected by policing, including Black, Latine/Latinx, and LGBTQ+ communities, to identify commonalities and particularities of policing among each community. Using the PRECEDE-PROCEED model of intervention planning, we propose a multi-phase process for identifying changeable priorities related to policing. We expect the specific health outcomes that will be assessed include use of force and poor mental health days. Further, this study will bring together a diverse group of community members through a community advisory board, thereby engaging community members that have lived experiences with mass incarceration and policing in order to improve the population health within the community. Upon successful completion of this work, we expect to have developed, implemented, and evaluated a pilot intervention that addresses policing and incarceration as a structural and political determinant of health that has individual, interpersonal, and community consequences.