Academic evidence. Public policy. Lived experience.
The Idaho Wellness Project Research & Policy Library brings together peer-reviewed academic research, government publications, public policy, data, and other authoritative sources relating to health, wellness, education, incarceration, rehabilitation, reentry, and community life. It is designed to make credible information easier to find, understand, and use—whether you are directly impacted by incarceration, a family member, student, researcher, practitioner, educator, policymaker, or simply someone seeking to learn. Wherever possible, we prioritize material that is freely and publicly accessible.
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Every source is clearly identified so readers can distinguish peer-reviewed scholarship from government documents, policy materials, and IWP publications.
Source and evidence type
Topic
Showing 7 verified sources
Prison Health, Wellbeing & Conditions of Confinement
Academic research
Extreme Heat and Suicide Watch Incidents Among Incarcerated Men
Peer Reviewed ✓
Open Access ✓
JAMA Network Open
2023
Longitudinal case series
Authors: David H. Cloud, Brie Williams, Regine Haardörfer, Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein, and Hannah L. F. Cooper
This study examined 6,576 facility-days across six Louisiana state prisons. Extreme-heat days were associated with a 30% higher rate of recorded suicide-watch incidents; the study identifies an association and does not, by itself, prove causation.
Why this mattersConditions of confinement are part of health and wellness. The findings help families, practitioners, and policymakers understand why heat mitigation and mental-health safeguards matter inside correctional facilities.
Topics: Health & Wellness · Mental Health · Corrections
Hazardous Heat Exposure Among Incarcerated People in the United States
Peer Reviewed ✓
Open Access ✓
Nature Sustainability
2024
Geospatial exposure analysis
Authors: Cascade Tuholske, Victoria D. Lynch, Raenita Spriggs, Yoonjung Ahn, Colin Raymond, Anne E. Nigra, and Robbie M. Parks
Researchers modelled potentially hazardous heat exposure at 4,078 operational carceral facilities across the continental United States from 1982 to 2020. They estimated an average of 41.3 million person-days of exposure annually during 2016–2020.
Why this mattersPeople in custody cannot readily leave unsafe temperatures or control their housing conditions. The study places prison climate, infrastructure, healthcare, and environmental justice within the evidence base for human wellbeing.
Topics: Health & Wellness · Corrections · Environmental Health · Public Policy
Heat-Related Mortality in U.S. State and Private Prisons: A Case-Crossover Analysis
Peer Reviewed ✓
Open Access ✓
PLOS ONE
2023
Case-crossover analysis
Authors: Julianne Skarha, Keith Spangler, David Dosa, Josiah D. Rich, David A. Savitz, and Antonella Zanobetti
Researchers linked temperature records with 12,836 deaths at 962 U.S. state and private prisons during summer months from 2001 to 2019. Higher temperatures and multi-day heatwaves were associated with increased mortality.
Why this mattersThis study moves from estimating exposure to examining recorded deaths. It shows why temperature, healthcare, aging, mental health, and correctional conditions must be understood together.
Topics: Health & Wellness · Environmental Health · Mental Health · Corrections
Parents’ Adverse and Positive Childhood Experiences and Offspring Involvement With the Criminal Legal System
Peer Reviewed ✓
Open Access ✓
JAMA Network Open
2023
Nationally representative cohort study
Authors: Elizabeth S. Barnert, Lindsay M. Schlichte, Destiny G. Tolliver, et al.
A study of 1,854 parent-child dyads found that parents’ histories of childhood adversity were associated with their children’s later arrest and conviction before age 26. The observational study identifies associations, not causation or destiny.
Why this mattersThe findings help explain why trauma education, family support, protective experiences, and intentional pattern interruption belong together—while preserving accountability and avoiding claims that adversity determines a person’s future.
Topics: Trauma · Family · Corrections · Health & Wellness
An Umbrella Review of the Links Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Substance Misuse
Peer Reviewed ✓
Open Access ✓
Substance Abuse and Rehabilitation
2022
Umbrella review
Authors: Lucinda Grummitt, Emma Barrett, Erin Kelly, and Nicola Newton
This umbrella review synthesizes existing review-level evidence linking adverse childhood experiences with later substance misuse and examines modifiable psychological, relational, and social pathways.
Why this mattersThe evidence supports understanding substance use in context and strengthening trauma-informed prevention, regulation, support, and recovery—without presenting adversity as destiny or an excuse for harmful behavior.
Topics: Trauma · Substance Use · Mental Health · Rehabilitation · Health & Wellness
Issued by: Penal Reform International and the Thailand Institute of Justice
The twelfth edition of this flagship annual report provides a global snapshot of prison systems, including overcrowding, conditions, healthcare and mental-health provision, oversight, rehabilitation, and human rights.
Why this mattersThe report places prison reform in an international context and gives policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and communities a current reference point for safer, fairer, and more humane prison systems.
Topics: Corrections · Rehabilitation · Mental Health · Health & Wellness · Public Policy
Strategy 2024–2028: Eight Goals to Build Human Rights-Based Criminal Justice
International strategy and policy framework
2024–2028
Not peer-reviewed
Issued by: Penal Reform International
PRI’s five-year strategy sets out eight goals spanning education and vocational training, people-centred justice, crisis protection, independent oversight, non-custodial options, lived-experience leadership, decriminalisation, and proportionate sentencing.
Why this mattersThe framework connects rehabilitation and reentry with institutional accountability, trauma-informed practice, restorative justice, sentencing reform, and the meaningful participation of people directly affected by criminal justice systems.
Topics: Corrections · Education · Rehabilitation · Reentry · Mental Health · Public Policy