Systemic effects of COVID‐19 policy changes on drug availability in prison: A natural experiment in Oregon, a research note

Drugs in prison can have serious consequences for prisoners, staff, and communities. In this study, we employed a natural experimental design to assess the systemic effects of the policy changes introduced by the Oregon Department of Corrections in March 2020 to slow the spread of coronavirus‐2019 (COVID‐19) on the measures of drug use and misconduct (e.g., suspended visits, precluded nonsecurity staff from entering facilities, stopped prisoner work release assignments). More specifically, we conducted interrupted time‐series analyses to evaluate whether the policy changes corresponded to changes in the aggregate rates of positive urinalysis tests and drug‐related misconduct. The results revealed statistically significant decreases in the rates of positive drug tests and misconduct system wide after the COVID‐19 policy changes. Research and policy implications are discussed.