Corrections Applications

Growth of Corrections Population

The corrections population in the United States has grown annually since 1970; over 2 million people are presently incarcerated, and over 7 million are under some form of correctional supervision (probation, parole or other supervised release, or placement in community corrections programs commonly referred to as “halfway houses”). The corrections population in the United States is between 6 and 10 times greater than that of any other industrialized country in the world. Rates of incarceration for racial and ethnic minorities are particularly discouraging. For example, two thirds of all prison inmates are minorities. One in every eight Black males in their 20s is in prison or jail on any given day. Institutional populations often exceed design capacities of the physical structures and allotted staff; state prisons operate at between 1% and 14% above capacity and federal prisons operate at 34% above capacity. This growth has thinned available resources and burdened corrections professionals.

More than half of all prison and jail inmates had a history of mental illness within the last 12 months. Rates of mental illness among female inmates (state 73%; federal 61%; jail 75%) far exceeded male rates (state 55%; federal 44%; jail 63%). Mental health problems among the corrections population are largely associated with criminal history, violent offenses, and physical aggression in prison as well as homelessness and other personal instability in the year before arrest. Estimated rates of mental illness within corrections populations typically incorporate only mood, anxiety, and psychotic disorders in their analyses and exclude developmental and substance-related disorders. Often, adjustment disorders with mood or anxiety symptoms are also not reflected in these statistics, because there is an assumed period of maladjustment inherent to incarceration. Consequently, statistics provided for the rates of mental illness within corrections populations typically underestimate actual rates, as statistics are based on a discrete set of disorders.

Growth in the U.S. incarcerated population is partly explained by decreases in numbers of patients hospitalized in mental hospitals and asylums. Although progressive movements in the 1950s and 1960s attempted to deinstitutionalize mental illness and provide for more humane treatment within the community, limited viable alternatives to mental hospitals and poorly equipped community programs contributed to increased rates of incarceration for individuals with mental illness. Quite simply, prisons have become the modern-day mental asylum.

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