For example, 50 percent of males and 75 percent of female inmates in state prisons, and 75 percent of females and 63 percent of male inmates in jails, will experience a mental health problem requiring mental health services in any given year. Since then, it has been shown that about 20 percent of prison inmates have a serious mental illness, 30 to 60 percent have substance abuse problems and, when including broad-based mental illnesses, the percentages increase significantly. Nearly a decade ago, I wrote an article with Patrick Brown titled “ Crisis in Corrections: The Mentally Ill in America’s Prisons.” It was about the alarming growth in the number of mentally ill individuals behind bars. If recent incarceration rates remain unchanged, an estimated 1 out of every 20 persons will spend time behind bars during their lifetime and many of those caught in the net that is cast to catch the criminal offender will be suffering with mental illness. In 2012, about 1 in every 35 adults in the United States, or 2.9 percent of adult residents, was on probation or parole or incarcerated in prison or jail, the same rate observed in 1997. Inmates are spending more time behind bars as states adopt “truth in sentencing laws,” which requires inmates to serve 85 percent of their sentence behind bars. The United States continues to have one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, with 5 percent of the world population, but nearly 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. Mental Illness in America’s Jails and Prisons Editor's note: This post is published in conjunction with the March issue of Health Affairs, which features a cluster of articles on jails and health.
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