Mental Health and the Justice System in Durham County (2026-2027)

Background

People with mental illness are significantly overrepresented in jails and detention centers across the United States. In Durham County, many agencies — including the Durham County Detention Facility (DCDF), Duke Health, housing organizations and justice partners — have long recognized this issue and have worked to improve outcomes for individuals with mental illness who encounter the justice system.

These efforts are complex because they span health systems, social services and legal institutions. Understanding what kinds of support are most effective requires not only descriptive data, but also long-term analyses of how individuals move between systems — before, during and after incarceration. Over the past seven years, this project has built one of the richest datasets in the country linking jail booking data with health system records, along with qualitative interviews from individuals with lived experience. This work offers an opportunity to evaluate programming, improve continuity of care and support justice-involved individuals with mental illness.

Project Description

This project team will analyze a merged, anonymized dataset that includes all people booked into the DCDF between 2014 and 2023 — over 30,000 individuals — along with their Duke Health encounters, prescriptions, diagnoses, insurance status and related records. More than 70% of individuals booked into the DCDF received care at Duke Health at least once during this period.

The team will:

• Conduct longitudinal analyses to examine continuity of care from detention to the community, and assess how services received inside the detention facility relate to health outcomes, re-arrest and emergency department use.
• Evaluate specific mental illness and addiction programs within the DCDF, including therapeutic housing units, clinical visits, housing referrals and transitions from custody to community-based care.
• Analyze qualitative interviews with 44 formerly incarcerated individuals about their experiences with mental health and substance use services, procedural justice and re-entry challenges. The team will also conduct new interviews with service providers to complement these themes.
• Support local stakeholders by preparing reports and recommendation memos that help county partners improve services and allocate resources effectively.

Students will work with both quantitative and qualitative data and collaborate closely with Durham-area partners who are directly involved in shaping policy and practice.

Anticipated Outputs

• Regular reports for Durham County stakeholders
• Website with accessible visualizations of key findings
• Manuscripts for scholarly publication
• Presentations for national conferences
• Recommendations for policy and program improvement

Student Opportunities

Ideally, this team will include 2 graduate students and 6 undergraduate students. Students from statistics, computer science, psychology, neuroscience, sociology, public policy, philosophy and political science are encouraged to apply. Students interested in mental health, criminal justice, social determinants of health or data-driven policy are particularly well-suited for the team.

Team members will:

• Clean, manage and analyze a very large, complex dataset using R
• Develop research questions and apply statistical and qualitative methods
• Participate in or analyze transcripts from interviews with justice-involved individuals and service providers
• Prepare reports for county agencies and co-author scholarly publications
• Present findings to stakeholders and participate in policy discussions
• Engage in a team journal club to deepen understanding of academic literature in this space

This project includes a related Data+ project in Summer 2026. Accepted students must participate in both Data+ and the year-long team. Through Data+, students will focus on data visualization and build a website to communicate findings to the community. Students will then transition into the year-long project team. Please note that there are separate application processes for Data+ and Bass Connections. This team will accept applicants through either portal and will conduct interviews with finalists for spots on the team.

Timing

Summer 2026 – Spring 2027

Summer 2026 (required):

• Participate in Data+
• Learn the dataset and create initial visualizations
• Join weekly discussions, including a book club on incarceration and mental health

Fall 2026:

• Meet with stakeholders to refine research priorities
• Begin quantitative and qualitative analyses

Spring 2027:

• Finalize analyses
• Prepare reports and manuscripts
• Present to stakeholders and submit work for publication

Crediting

Academic credit available for fall and spring semesters

See related Data+ summer project, Mental Health and the Justice System in Durham County (2026), and earlier related team, Mental Health and the Justice System in Durham County (2025-2026).