Jails, HIV Testing, and Linkage to Care Services: An Overview of the EnhanceLink Initiative

Over 9 million persons in the United States (US) are admitted each year to jails. HIV prevalence among detainees is higher than the general population, which creates a public health need for linking HIV-infected detainees to services during jail and after release. The EnhanceLink initiative was fund...

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Published inAIDS and behavior Vol. 17; no. Suppl 2; pp. 100 - 107
Main Authors Spaulding, Anne C., Booker, Cristina A., Freeman, Shalonda H., Ball, Sarah W., Stein, Matthew S., Jordan, Alison O., Ahuja, Divya, Solomon, Liza, Frew, Paula M.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Boston Springer US 01.10.2013
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Adult
Continuity of Patient Care - organization & administration
Delivery of Health Care - organization & administration
Diagnostic tests
Female
Health Psychology
HIV
HIV Infections - diagnosis
HIV Infections - epidemiology
Human immunodeficiency virus
Humans
Infectious Diseases
Initiatives
Male
Mass Screening - methods
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Middle Aged
Original Paper
Prevalence
Prisoners
Prisons
Program Development
Program Evaluation
Public Health
United States - epidemiology
Young Adult
United States
HIV/AIDS
HIV testing
Inmate
Jail
Incarceration
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Summary:Over 9 million persons in the United States (US) are admitted each year to jails. HIV prevalence among detainees is higher than the general population, which creates a public health need for linking HIV-infected detainees to services during jail and after release. The EnhanceLink initiative was funded as demonstration projects in 10 communities at 20 separate jails across the US. Grantees implemented and evaluated innovative models of HIV testing in jails and linkage of HIV-infected individuals to community services post release. In this paper, we describe services delivered with the EnhanceLink initiative. During 877,119 admission events, 210,267 inmates agreed to HIV testing and 822 new diagnoses of HIV were made. The majority of persons served with transitional services were previously diagnosed before the current incarceration. Cumulatively, 9,837 HIV+ persons were offered linkage and transitional services and 8,056 (82 %) accepted the offer. EnhanceLink demonstrated the feasibility of HIV testing in jail settings and provision of linkage services to enhance continuity of HIV care post-release.
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ISSN:1090-7165
1573-3254
DOI:10.1007/s10461-012-0339-2