Justice Health
Our research builds the evidence base for policy and practice to improve outcomes for people with histories of criminal justice system involvement.
Group Heads
About
People with criminal justice system involvement are disproportionately affected by social disadvantage, chronic ill health, preventable disease, mental illness and substance use. We undertake rigorous, policy-relevant research to build evidence for justice health policy and practice. We also co-design interventions to improve outcomes for people with histories of criminal justice system involvement.
We conduct research to better understand the systemic, environmental, social and individual factors contributing to poor health among people with histories of involvement in the criminal justice system. Our work has contributed to policy and practice change nationally.
We build partnerships with people with lived experience, community and health organisations and government, locally, nationally and internationally. We design and co-design evidence-based interventions to improve health and social outcomes for people with criminal justice system involvement.
Our research explores how contact with, and release, from the criminal justice system impacts:
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health
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health-risk behaviours
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psychosocial adjustment
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engagement with health services change.
Building and strengthening collaborations with correctional services nationwide, we facilitate translation of our research into effective health policy and service delivery.
Current projects
View 5 more
We keep us safe: working with communities to end domestic, family and sexual violence
We're working with criminalised communities to help end domestic, family and sexual violence.
Eliminate Hepatitis C Australia (EC Australia)
Partnering to eliminate hepatitis C as a public health threat by 2030.
The Torch co-design and evaluation collaboration
We’re working closely with staff and artists at The Torch, a not-for-profit First Nations-led arts organisation, to improve program engagement and effectiveness.
Featured publications
National consensus statement on opioid agonist treatment in custodial settings
The Medical Journal of Australia
Jocelyn Chan et al
Consensus recommendations on the management of hepatitis C in Australia's prisons
The Medical Journal of Australia
Rebecca Winter et al
Discontinuation of opioid agonist treatment following release from prison in a cohort of men who injected drugs prior to imprisonment in Victoria, Australia: A discrete-time survival analysis
Drug and Alcohol Dependence
M. David Curtis et al
The Prison and Transition Health (PATH) cohort study: Prevalence of health, social, and crime characteristics after release from prison for men reporting a history of injecting drug use in Victoria, Australia
Drug and Alcohol Dependence
Ashleigh C. Stewart et al
High rates of resumption of injecting drug use following release from prison among men who injected drugs before imprisonment
Addiction
M. David Curtis et al
Contribution of prison-based hepatitis C treatment initiations to overall treatment uptake in Victoria, Australia
The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific
S. Griffin et al
Police custody in Australia: A call for transparency and accountability
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health
Shelley Walker et al
The Prison and Transition Health (PATH) Cohort Study: Study Protocol and Baseline Characteristics of a Cohort of Men with a History of Injecting Drug Use Leaving Prison in Australia
Journal of Urban Health
Amy Kirwan et al
“I Lost Me Visits”
Contemporary Drug Problems
Shelley Walker et al
Group contacts
Main contacts
Student supervisor contacts
Group members
Ashleigh Stewart
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Jade Lane
Research and Technical Advisor
Professor Margaret Hellard AM
Deputy Director, Programs; Adjunct Professor, Monash University, DEPM.
Megan Sechtig
Masters Student
Professor Mark A Stoové
Head of Public Health
Dr Michael Curtis
Postdoctoral Research Officer
Professor Paul Dietze
Program Director, Disease Elimination; Professor and Program Leader, National Drug Research Institute (NDRI)
Associate Professor Peter Higgs
Principal Research Fellow; Honorary Associate Professor, Department of Public Health, La Trobe University
Dr Rebecca Winter
Deputy Head, Justice Health
Dr Shelley Walker
Adjunct Research Fellow
Dr Sophia Schroeder
Senior Research Officer
Amy Kirwan
Senior Research Fellow, Social Impact and Innovation
