BACKGROUND Justice-involved young adults have high rates of substance use disorders. Despite the need for treatment, there are unique challenges to recruiting young adults into substance use treatment trials. Digital health technology offers many novel avenues for 1) recruiting justice-involved young adults into clinical research studies and 2) studying ways to increase access to substance use services for justice-involved young adults. OBJECTIVE The current study describes the process and feasibility of recruiting justice-involved young adults into clinical research using social media and the acceptability of digital health interventions to address substance use in this population. METHODS Justice-involved young adults (ages 18-24) were recruited through Facebook ($0.66 per click) and Reddit ($0.47 per click) paid advertisements. Participants responded to an online survey focused on their substance use, treatment utilization history, and acceptability of substance-use focused digital health interventions. RESULTS A national sample of justice-involved young adults were successfully enrolled and completed the survey (N=131). More than half of participants were on probation or parole in the past year (55%) and reported hazardous alcohol (52%) or drug (57%) use. Most (78%) were not currently participating in substance use treatment. Nearly 2/3 (63%) were willing to participate in one or more hypothetical digital health interventions. CONCLUSIONS Social media appears to be a feasible and cost-effective method for reaching justice-involved young adults to participate in substance use research trials. Proposed digital health interventions focusing on reducing substance use had high acceptability
