Highlights
An overview of US Department of Justice and supplemental data as to mental and emotional health and crime.
Most offenders have troubled backgrounds and symptoms.
Access to mental health treatment could reduce violence and negative police encounters significantly.
“I think for a lot of us, we don’t realize how we become dangerous to other humans because we do not care about ourselves, nor do we care about others,” The Kansas City Star.
Author
Leonard Adam Sipes, Jr.
Retired federal senior spokesperson. Thirty-five years of directing award-winning public relations for national and state criminal justice agencies. Interviewed multiple times by every national news outlet. Former Senior Specialist for Crime Prevention for the Department of Justice’s clearinghouse. Former Director of Information Services, National Crime Prevention Council. Former Adjunct Associate Professor of criminology and public affairs-University of Maryland, University College. Former advisor to presidential and gubernatorial campaigns. Former advisor to the “McGruff-Take a Bite Out of Crime” national media campaign. Certificate of Advanced Study-Johns Hopkins University. Former police officer. Aspiring drummer.
Article
This article presents a summation of data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the US Department of Justice for 2006-2017 and 2021 addressing mental health studies within prisons. It’s supplemented by additional research.
Examples of mental illness include depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders and addictive behaviors.
Mental and emotional health issues drive crime. Most offenders have challenging (or horrific) backgrounds of abuse, exposure to violence, PTSD, anxiety, substance abuse and an array of additional issues. If treatment was universally available, violence would significantly decline.
It’s important to understand that the data from the US Department of Justice is self-reported thus an undercount as to inmates with mental health issues.
I interviewed hundreds of criminal offenders throughout my justice career and I understand their reluctance to be forthcoming. Many assume that the full truth (regardless of assurances) could be used against them.
Throughout these interviews, I discovered that many offenders didn’t know precisely why they engaged in violence. For many if not most, age brings insight and a willingness to confront their backgrounds through treatment (however informal) that allows them to “cross the bridge” towards normalcy.
Those dealing with offender populations describe many as, “Having a chip on their shoulder the size of Montana.” Many believe that it’s related to massive child abuse and neglect, Child Abuse.
Cops And Mental Health
All of us who served time as police officers interacted with people who acted irrationally (understatement) and were under the influence of substances at the time of the encounter. If you probe into the backgrounds of offenders who provided the most resistance, you will find histories of abuse and trauma creating or bordering on mental health problems.
If mental health treatment was widely available, it’s my assumption that use of force issues would drop by half, probably more based on USDOJ data stating that less than three percent of police interactions involve force or the threat of force.
Excuses For Bad Behavior
Every time I write about mental health issues, there are readers who feel that I’m making excuses for bad behavior. I’m not. I’m simply offering the results of research.
Mental Illness Does Not Equal Criminality
Most readers understand that a small percentage of those with emotional or mental health issues engage in criminal activity. Because the numbers in this article are high is not an indicator of overall criminality by those with mental health issues.
“Twenty percent of all US adults have some form of mental illness, but very few of them have a mental illness that will increase their likelihood of violence,” Slate.Com.
Former Inmates
Because a former inmate has a background of emotional or mental health problems doesn’t mean that he or she remains committed to criminal activity. I interviewed hundreds of ex-offenders who told me about their history of abuse or instability who are doing well in every aspect of their lives.
Most Offenders Have Troubled Backgrounds
The rate of child abuse and neglect among the offender population is staggering. Add exposure to violence in their families and communities, substance abuse (commonly running at 80 percent) plus physical, emotional and mental health problems and we have some indication as to why we have our current crime and violence problems.
If you want to significantly reduce violence within our society, we have to address mental health.
Edited Responses
I used selected responses from the data for the sake of brevity. I used mostly state prisoner data because of the vast differences between federal and state prisons. Most state prisoners have a history of violence. Most federal prisoners do not.
2006 Report From The Bureau of Justice Statistics
More than half of all prison and jail inmates had a mental health problem.
These estimates represented 56% of State prisoners, 45% of Federal prisoners, and 64% of jail inmates.
The findings in this report were based on data from personal interviews with State and Federal prisoners in 2004 and local jail inmates in 2002.
Mental health problems were defined by two measures: a recent history or symptoms of a mental health problem. They must have occurred in the 12 months prior to the interview.
More than two-fifths of State prisoners (43%) and more than half of jail inmates (54%) reported symptoms that met the criteria for mania.
About 23% of State prisoners and 30% of jail inmates reported symptoms of major depression.
An estimated 15% of State prisoners and 24% of jail inmates reported symptoms that met the criteria for a psychotic disorder.
Bureau of Justice Statistics-Mental Health-2006
2017 Report From The Bureau of Justice Statistics
About 1 in 7 state and federal prisoners and 1 in 4 jail inmates self-reported experiences that met the threshold for serious psychological distress (SPD) in the 30 days prior to the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ 2011-12 National Inmate Survey.
In comparison, data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that about 1 in 19 persons in the standardized U.S. general population met the threshold for serious psychological distress.
More than a third (37%) of prisoners had been told by a mental health professional in the past that they had a mental health disorder.
Prisoners were most commonly told they had a major depressive disorder (24%), a bipolar disorder (18%), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or personality disorder (13%), and schizophrenia or another psychotic disorder (9%).
Forty-four percent of jail inmates had been told by a mental health professional in the past that they had a mental health disorder. Nearly a third (31%) of jail inmates had previously been told that they had major depressive disorder and a quarter (25%) had been told they had a bipolar disorder.
About 18% of jail inmates had been told they had an anxiety disorder, 16% had been told they had PTSD, and 14% had been told they had a personality disorder.
Females held in prisons or jails were more likely than males to have met the threshold for serious psychological distress or to have a history of a mental health problem.
In prisons, 20% of females and 14% of males met the threshold for serious psychological distress.
Two-thirds (66%) of female prisoners and around a third (35%) of male prisoners had been told by a mental health professional that they had a mental health disorder.
In jails, an estimated 29% of inmates incarcerated for a violent offense met the threshold for serious psychological distress. This was greater than the percentage of jail inmates incarcerated for a property (27%) crime, another public order (26%) offense, a drug (25%) crime, or DWI/DUI (24%).
Bureau of Justice Statistics-Mental Health-2017
Additional Previous Research
Between 75 and 93 percent of youth entering the juvenile justice system annually in this country are estimated to have experienced some degree of trauma, Children and Trauma.
A 2014 Department of Justice study shows that 60 percent of children nationwide are exposed to violence, crime, or abuse; consequences include poor school performance, drug and alcohol abuse, long-term physical and psychological harm, and risk of future victimization and suicide, Exposure to Violence.
A Johns Hopkins University sociologist discovered that the consequences of neighborhood violence reach further than previously known, even spilling over to students who come from safe neighborhoods, the Washington Post reports.
Using data from Chicago, Julia Burdick-Will linked exposure to neighborhood violence to a drop in test scores, an effect that extended to students coming from communities that experienced little or no violence.
A Rutgers University study showed that more than half (56 percent) of male inmates reported experiencing physical abuse as children, while 47 percent of females inmates reported experiencing childhood sexual abuse.
“Through a project that began five years ago, researchers have screened 4,100 people in jail, on probation or assigned to drug courts in Denver and five other counties to find out how many have a traumatic brain injury — an impairment that could impact the likelihood of their return to the criminal justice system.” “The results were stark: 54 percent had a history of serious brain injury, compared with 8 percent of the general population,” Denver Post.
There are articles about people who live in high crime communities having PTSD because of their exposure to violence in their families and community. High-crime area violence seems to be corrupting; it may influence people who can see violence as a necessary component of life, Child Abuse.
About 35 percent of people found criminally insane in Oregon and then let out of supervised psychiatric treatment were charged with new crimes within three years of being freed by state officials. On its website, the board assures Oregonians that repeat offenses by people it supervises are exceedingly rare events, with only 0.46 percent of defendants committing new crimes each year, ProPublica.
Most offenders were under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the arrest. Anywhere from 56 percent (Charlotte) to 82 percent (Chicago) of arrestees across sites tested positive for the presence of some substance at the time of arrest. In 9 out of the 10 sites in 2009, 60 percent or more of arrestees tested positive, see ADAM and Drug Use at Arrest.
2021 Report From The Bureau Of Justice Statistics
About 14% of state prisoners and 8% of federal prisoners met the threshold for past 30-day serious psychological distress
Females in state (19%) or federal (17%) prisons were more likely than males in state (14%) or federal (7%) prison to have met the threshold for past 30-day SPD.
About 43% of state and 23% of federal prisoners had a history of a mental health problem.
An estimated 27% of state and 14% of federal prisoners reported being told they had a major depressive disorder, the most common mental disorder reported.
Among state prisoners, blacks (33%) were less likely than whites (53%) to have a history of a mental health problem.
An estimated 40% of state prisoners and 26% of federal prisoners who met the threshold for past 30-day serious psychological distress reported they were receiving treatment for a mental health problem.
Forty-four percent of state and 65% of federal prisoners had no indication of a mental health problem.
Females in state (69%) or federal (52%) prison were more likely to have a history of a mental health problem than males in state (41%) or federal (21%) prison.
State prisoners ages 55 to 64 (38%) and age 65 or older (32%) were less likely than those ages 18 to 24 (43%) to report a history of a mental health problem.
Among state prisoners, blacks (12%) were less likely than whites (15%) to have met the threshold for past 30-day serious psychological distress
About a quarter of state prisoners reported being told they had bipolar disorder (23%) or an anxiety disorder (22%).
Fourteen percent of state prisoners and 7% of federal prisoners reported being told they had post-traumatic stress disorder.
About 60% of state prisoners and 42% of federal prisoners who met the threshold for past 30-day reported they had received mental health treatment at some time since admission.
Among those with a history of a mental health problem, 63% of state and 58% of federal prisoners reported receiving treatment since admission.
Bureau of Justice Statistics-Mental Health-2021
See More
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Most Dangerous Cities/States/Countries at Most Dangerous Cities.
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National Offender Recidivism Rates at Offender Recidivism.
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