Impact of Increased Criminal Penalties on Health and Community

"This work adds to a growing body of literature on how increased criminal penalties for drug possession and distribution affect health. Prior work has documented that the criminal legal system can be a stigmatizing revolving door that people often struggle to escape (Jones & Sawyer, 2019; LeMasters et al., 2023a). Our work expands on this notion by highlighting how increased penalties specifically for fentanyl possession contribute to this revolving door, as people often use drugs to cope with the stress and stigmatization of criminal legal involvement, which only continues their involvement in this system. Our work also highlights that while views were largely the same in urban and rural areas, relationships between law enforcement and PWUD in rural areas may be more positive due to long-standing individual relationships and the lack of other community services that require engagement with law enforcement. This echoes prior work that has found some rural law enforcement to be supportive of syringe exchange programs, but is counter to prior work that found rural law enforcement’s views towards PWUD to be particularly stigmatizing (Allen et al., 2022; Ezell et al., 2021).

"Results from this study also highlight a tension between increasing jail and police funding to better address SUD and shifting this funding to community agencies that are not part of the criminal legal system. Work by the American Civil Liberties Union states that MOUD treatment programs in prisons and jails, while necessary, should never justify incarceration itself (American Civil Liberties Union, 2021). Yet, in many counties in Colorado, jails are the only place where MOUD is provided, emphasizing the need to invest in long-term community solutions. For instance, as outlined by a national coalition of recovery and harm reduction organizations, government agencies should allocate opioid abatement funds to proven public health solutions (e.g., overdose prevention centers), housing and wraparound support services (e.g., supportive housing programs), addressing collateral consequences of Drug War policies (e.g., second-chance employment programs), and supporting community-based organizations rather than further criminalizing substance use (A Roadmap for Opioid Settlement Funds: Supporting Communities & Ending the Overdose Crisis, n.d.). Results from our work highlight that within pre-existing community-based organizations, there is a need to both increase messaging from those providing services to PWUD to ensure that individuals are aware of their rights under the Good Samaritan Laws and to ensure that policing efforts are also aligned with the Good Samaritan Law (Koester et al., 2017; Schneider et al., 2020)."