MENTAL HEALTH IN PRISONS FACTS

In state prisons, 73 percent of women and 55 of men have at least one mental health problem

In federal prisons, 61 percent of women and 44 percent of men

In local jails, 75 percent of women and 63 percent of men

There are now three times more people with serious mental illness incarcerated in the United States than in hospitals, and the types of behavioral and mental health problems among inmates are becoming more severe.

In Ohio, among 132 patients discharged from the state hospital, 17 percent of them were arrested within six months

By 2006, the Department of Justice reported that 1 in 6 inmates in state prisons and 1 in four in local jails were psychotic.

Inmates with mental health problems are much more likely to have experienced or witnessed traumatic events during adolescence: “They grow up in homes witnessing violence and sexual abuse, and caregivers going in and out of jail,” said Dana DeHart, an assistant dean for research support at the College of Social Work at DeSaussure College in Columbia, South Carolina. “Victimization leads to or exacerbates mental health problems like depression, anxiety and PTSD.”

Jail and prison are particularly bad places to be mentally ill. Men and women with behavioral disorders and mental illness end up in stressful prison environments many are put in seclusion for long stretches of time that further exacerbate their conditions

Inmates with mental illness are much more likely to be injured in prison fights.