Partnering to Address Health Inequities among Incarcerated Populations: Prisons, Jails, and COVID-19 Vaccination

Background: Incarcerated people have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and face significant challenges to COVID-19 vaccine confidence. Objectives: (1) Describe our partnerships with community members directly impacted by incarceration, (2) discuss the partnership’s process for co-developing and implementing project interventions to increase COVID-19 vaccine confidence, and (3) share lessons learned from this unique community-engaged partnership. Methods: An advisory board of 14 formerly incarcerated community members participated in this project. Their wisdom and experience led to the development and implementation of interventions to increase confidence in COVID-19 vaccines among incarcerated people. Lessons Learned: Valuable lessons learned were centering community, leaning into trusted sources of information, acknowledging historical and present harms, and investing in community-engaged work. Conclusions: Centering lived experiences of those directly impacted by incarceration has been crucial to increasing vaccine confidence among this population. Doing so reinforced the importance of long-term investments in community-based collaborations with communities impacted by incarceration.