PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Samantha Plummer AU - Timothy Ittner AU - Angie Monreal AU - Jasmin Sandelson AU - Bruce Western TI - Life During COVID for Court-Involved People AID - 10.7758/RSF.2023.9.3.10 DP - 2023 May 01 TA - RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences PG - 232--251 VI - 9 IP - 3 4099 - http://www.rsfjournal.org/content/9/3/232.short 4100 - http://www.rsfjournal.org/content/9/3/232.full AB - Data from a unique survey of court-involved New Yorkers collected during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 provides evidence for a cycle of disadvantage involving penal control, material hardship, and health risk. We find evidence of chaotic jail conditions from March to May 2020 in the early phase of the pandemic, and high levels of housing and food insecurity, and joblessness for those leaving jail or with current criminal cases. The highest levels of material hardship—measured by housing insecurity, unemployment, shelter stays, and poor self-reported health—were experienced by those with mental illness and substance use problems who had been incarcerated.