Most of the information in this post series has been adapted from the Bureau of Justice Statistics 2012 National Inmate Survey and the 2014 “The Treatment of Persons with Mental Illness in Prisons and Jails: A State Survey” from the Treatment Advocacy Center and National Sheriff’s Association. You can access both of these surveys and reports at the bottom of this post.
CW: Mentions of Abuse
Once people with mental illness are arrested and face incarceration, they experience a myriad of unique difficulties because of their mental health status.
Inmates with mental illness spend more time in both jails and prisons than inmates without mental illness (The Treatment of 2014)
Inmates with mental illness are less likely to be bailed out of jail or be forced to stay because of ‘bad behavior’
Inmates with mental illness are more likely to receive longer sentences, which can sometimes be attributed to staying in jail without bail
Inmates with mental illness are more likely to encounter traumas like physical abuse, sexual abuse, and solitary confinement. (The Treatment of 2014)
You can learn more about the traumatic nature of solitary confinement here.
A majority of inmates with mental illness do not receive treatment for their illness before or after their time in jail. (James & Glaze 2006)
In county jails, 42.7% of inmates with mental illness had ever received treatment, and only 17.5% received treatment after time in jail.
In state prisons, 49.3% of inmates with mental illness had ever received treatment, and 33.8% received treatment after time in prison.
In federal prisons, 35.3% of inmates with mental illness had ever received treatment, and 24% received treatment after time in prison.
SOURCES
April 2014 “The Treatment of Persons with Mental Illness in Prisons and Jails: A State Survey” Treatment Advocacy Center and National Sheriff’s Association
Mental Health Care in Prisons: Moving Towards The Present
Most of the information in this post series has been adapted from the Bureau of Justice Statistics 2012 National Inmate Survey and the 2014 “The Treatment of Persons with Mental Illness in Prisons and Jails: A State Survey” from the Treatment Advocacy Center and National Sheriff’s Association. You can access both of these surveys and reports at the bottom of this post.
Though deinstitutionalization was an attempt to improve the experience of people with mental illness as a response to outrage over the conditions of psychiatric hospitals, the lack of efficient structures created in their place had negative effects. In some ways, the treatment of people with mental illness seemed to spiral backward to reflect historic conditions (Deinstitutionalization - Treatment Advocacy Center).
After psychiatric hospitals began to close, rates of people with mental illness entering nursing homes, general hospitals, and prisons increased (Deinstitutionalization - Treatment Advocacy Center)
Untreated mental illness led to an increased prevalence of criminalization of behaviors occurring as a result of a person’s mental illness
In 2006, the breakdown of crime type in STATE PRISONS for people with mental illness as reported by a study published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics was as follows (James & Glaze 2006)
49% violent offenses
19.6% property offenses
19.3% drug offenses
11.9% public-order offenses
In 2006, the breakdown of crime type in FEDERAL PRISONS for people with mental illness as reported by a study published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics was as follows (James & Glaze 2006)
16% violent offenses
7.2% property offenses
51.3% drug offenses
22.3% public-order offenses
SOURCES
April 2014 “The Treatment of Persons with Mental Illness in Prisons and Jails: A State Survey” Treatment Advocacy Center and National Sheriff’s Association
Most of the information in this post series has been adapted from the Bureau of Justice Statistics 2012 National Inmate Survey and the 2014 “The Treatment of Persons with Mental Illness in Prisons and Jails: A State Survey” from the Treatment Advocacy Center and National Sheriff’s Association. You can access both of these surveys and reports at the bottom of this post.
CW: Ableist Language
1600s and 1700s
In Massachusetts Bay Colony, people with mental illness were imprisoned as early as 1694, when people described as “lunatics” were placed in jail to supposedly promote peace and safety
In the 1700s, jailers were often paid by family members of a person with mental illness or churchwardens to house that person in jail
Resistance to imprisoning people with mental illness was already happening at this time
In 1752, this resistance in Pennsylvania was met by the opening of the Pennsylvania Hospital, which can be noted as the first psychiatric ward in the country
1800s to the 1970s
Persistent resistance against the incarceration of persons with mental illness in the United States (and horrid prison conditions in general) led to many areas of reform
In 1833, a new psychiatric hospital was opened in Worcester, MA in response to the exposing of these conditions
Over 50% of the first year’s admissions were people with mental illness who were transferring out of incarceration
Dorothea Dix is credited with having visited 300 county jails and 18 state prisons to continue exposing the conditions inmates with mental illness were forced into
In 1880, there were 75 public psychiatric hospitals, and the federal census noted that less than 1% of people in prisons were classified as “insane”
The 1880 census is described as having “the most complete enumeration of mentally ill people ever carried out in the United States, before or since” (TAC Report)
Over the next 100 years, people with mental illness were generally understood as patients of psychiatric hospitals instead of prisoners
1970s and Deinstitutionalization
Reflective of resistance to conditions for incarcerated people with mental illness in the 1800s, the deplorable conditions of many psychiatric hospitals nationwide led to a call for the end of hospitalization of people with mental illness (Deinstitutionalization - Treatment Advocacy Center).
The beginnings of deinstitutionalization sparked when chlorpromazine, the first effective antipsychotic medication, was introduced in 1955
The idea that people with mental illness could be treated outside of an institutional setting became more popular with the knowledge of conditions in psychiatric institutions alongside the emergence of pharmaceuticals to treat mental illness
SOURCES
April 2014 “The Treatment of Persons with Mental Illness in Prisons and Jails: A State Survey” Treatment Advocacy Center and National Sheriff’s Association
