Phillip Marotta’s research focuses on the impact of the criminal justice system on disparities in public health, with an emphasis on substance use treatment interventions in justice-involved populations and the HIV care continuum for justice-involved persons with substance use disorders.

Marotta examines medication-assisted treatments for opioid use disorder (OUD) in jails and prisons. A current project evaluates the effects of methadone treatment during custody on recidivism and overdose among recently discharged individuals. 

Marotta recently received a National Service Award to examine the role of criminal justice involvement in retention, injection and sexual HIV risk behaviors, using data from three HIV prevention clinical trials with people who use drugs.

Two of his current projects seek to measure the impact of racial and ethnic discrimination on treatment. The first assesses if social support can moderate the unmet need, driven by discrimination, for substance use treatment for justice-involved people. The second investigates how the attitudes of law enforcement toward harm reduction policies impacts their behavior toward people with OUD in Tijuana, Mexico.

Prior to his time at the Brown School, Marotta was a postdoctoral research fellow at Yale School of Medicine.