Objective To analyze three-year recidivism after release from a prison nursery, a secure unit that allows imprisoned women to care for their infants. Design and Sample Descriptive study of 139 women who co-resided with their infants between 2001–2007 in X prison nursery. Measurement Administrative criminal justice data were analyzed along with prospective study data on demographic, mental health, and prison nursery policy-related factors. Results Results reflect a sample of young women of color with histories of clinically significant depressive symptoms and substance dependence, who were convicted of nonviolent crimes and had multiple prior arrests. Three years after release 86.3% remained in the community. Only 4% of women returned to prison for new crimes. Survival modeling indicated that women who had previously violated parole had a significantly shorter mean return to prison time than those who were in the nursery for a new crime. Conclusion Women released from a prison nursery have a low likelihood of recidivism. Innovative interventions are needed to address incarceration’s public health effects. Nurses can partner with criminal justice organizations to develop, implement, and evaluate programs to ensure the health needs of criminal justice involved people and their families are met.

The current study addressed the relationship between child sexual abuse (CSA) and perpetration of physical intimate partner violence, examining the possible mediating effect of antisocial traits and behaviors, as well as the differences in these relationships between men and women. Data came from the International Dating Violence Study. Hypotheses were tested on a sample of 13,659 university students from 68 sites and 32 countries using hierarchical linear modeling. Results indicated that CSA was significantly associated with perpetration of physical intimate partner violence for both men and women. The slope of the relationships, however, varied across sites for women. Antisocial traits and behaviors fully mediated the relationship between CSA and perpetration of physical intimate partner violence for women but only partially mediated this relationship for men. Increased focus needs to be paid to gender differences on the effect of CSA on the development of antisocial traits and behaviors, the relationship between these factors and perpetration of intimate partner violence, and the variation of these relationships across nations.

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