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Release and reentry are critical times for ensuring a safe and stable transition into the community and providing a linkage to treatment. Individuals should leave the facility with state-issued identification, Medicaid (if applicable), and other benefits. Individuals should also be provided with naloxone and naloxone training upon release. Individuals on MOUD should be provided with a bridge prescription or take-home medication, along with an appointment with a community provider and a warm handoff to the provider. Providing these linkages will improve outcomes and save lives. ONDCP should work with federal partners at DOJ and HHS to ensure that federal funding opportunities support and promote community reentry. B. Eliminate collateral consequences that do not serve to protect the public. (Agencies Involved: DOJ/BOP, OJP) Drug-related criminal convictions can carry unique lifelong penalties that go above and beyond one’s sentence, including an indelible electronic record. Known as collateral consequences of conviction, these penalties are common in both state and federal law and can be lifelong. Examples include bans on access to public housing, public assistance, ineligibility to vote, serve on a jury, temporary or permanent ineligibility for federal student aid, ineligibility for employment in health care facilities or within a state government, or ineligibility to obtain a professional license—even in a field in which one had long practiced as a licensed professional. Collateral consequences severely limit one’s ability to have a successful reentry process and carry lifelong penalties. It is “no wonder, then, that approximately 60-percent of formerly incarcerated individuals remain unemployed one year after incarceration.”412 While collateral consequences are narrowly tailored and serve a necessary public function in some cases, such as by forbidding prohibiting employment of individuals convicted of Medicaid fraud at health care facilities receiving federal funding, in other cases, they serve principally to impede or prevent successful reintegration and recovery. Moreover, the United States Commission on Civil Rights has noted that the impact of collateral consequences of conviction extends beyond the individual to the family and community and that, while certain collateral consequences of conviction serve to safeguard the public, others are unrelated to the crime for which a person was convicted and do not serve a public safety purpose.413 Moreover, the Commission noted that both the public and the judiciary lack awareness of collateral consequences of conviction, undermining any hypothesized deterrent effect. Consequently, the Commission recommended that collateral consequences of conviction only be imposed when they serve to protect the public, noting that when such a function is absent such provisions actually undermine public safety by hindering successful community reintegration.414 We must continue to advance such efforts. « « « « « « 106 NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL STRATEGY Data Systems and Research The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to employing a multi-faceted and evidence-based approach to policy-making as directed in the Presidential Memorandum on scientific integrity and evidence-based policymaking. 415 This is particularly significant in the area of drug policy where the ultimate impact is typically measured in American lives. Timely and accurate data are essential to grasp the extent and evolving nature of the drug problem, guide policy, assess the effectiveness of our nation’s efforts, and continually improve these efforts over time. Data systems and research to generate this information must be maintained, enhanced, and supplemented so drug control practitioners, researchers, and policy-makers are continually informed by the most up to date and accurate information, while also protecting privacy and confidentiality. Further, when well communicated, such data can help inform the American public as to the types of policies and programs most likely to successfully address substance use challenges in their own communities. Development of effective drug policy requires timely and rigorous data covering the full range of trends and activities: consumption patterns and drug use consequences, such as drug morbidity and mortality; prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery; drug production, transportation and distribution by drug trafficking organizations; economic consequences of substance use; eradication and interdiction operations, and related investigations and prosecutions, by law enforcement and national security organizations at home and abroad. Further, such data must be sufficiently robust to inform questions about health disparities in substance use and service delivery, as well as provide insights as to how to build health equity related to the alleviation of substance use challenges. This is a tremendous undertaking that requires data collection by diverse stakeholders, robust information systems and analytical capabilities to adapt as the situation evolves. Curating a knowledge base of various policy and intervention tools is another important aspect of a science-centered modus. This too requires reliable data along with sound analytical techniques that ensures that policy and program decisions are grounded in science. By 

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