Implementing High-Intensity, Trauma-Informed Sexual Risk Reduction in Women Involved in the Criminal Legal System

Although research supports using brief or extended behavioral interventions to increase prevention of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), there is a shortage of current information about the specific effects on women in a short-stay carceral environment. This evidence-based practice implementation project aimed to employ the Safer Sex Efficacy (SSE) Workshop in a jail setting. A repeated measures design was used to compare STI knowledge acquisition and reports of condom use self-efficacy in a group of incarcerated women before, immediately after, and 3 weeks after participation in a high-intensity behavioral counseling intervention. Twenty-one females between the ages of 20 and 45 years participated in the program. STI knowledge acquisition and reports of condom use self-efficacy were measured using the Sexually Transmitted Disease Knowledge Questionnaire and the Condom Use Self-Efficacy Scale. Findings support the feasibility of implementing evidence-based sexual health education programming incorporating information about sexual risk behaviors, STI knowledge, and behavioral skills practice in a short-stay correctional setting and further investigation with a larger sample.