Salt of the Earth: statistics of interest

Stat house
August 2000

The mentally ill behind bars
The number of mentally ill people in jails and prisons grew as the number in psychiatric hospitals declined. The average daily number of patients in U.S. state and county mental hospitals:
      1950: 592,853
      1970: 432,520
      1980: 162,093
      1994: 71,619
      1999: 280,000—more than four times the number in state mental hospitals.

Other stats:

Capital punishment

Environment

Homelessness

Welfare reform

Our booming prisons

Disappearing health care

Refugees worldwide

Misc. stats

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Women prisoners are more likely to be mentally ill then male prisoners. One in four female inmates reports having a mental illness.

White women inmates have a higher rate of mental illness than any other demographic group. Twenty-nine percent of white female state prisoners were identified as mentally ill. Twenty percent of black females and 22 percent of Hispanic females in state prison were mentally ill.

Mentally ill inmates are slightly more likely to have committed violent crimes—53 percent, compared with 46 percent of inmates with no identified mental illness.

Twenty percent of inmates with mental illness were homeless during the year before their incarceration. Twelve percent of non-mentally ill inmates reported having been homeless.

More than 75 percent of mentally ill inmates had been sentenced to prison, jail or probation at least once prior to their current sentence. Half reported three or more prior sentences.

These statistics were compiled by the producers of Jailing the Mentally Ill at American Radio Works.
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Additional resources:
Center on Crime, Communities & Culture
The goal of the Center on Crime, Communities & Culture is to create a better understanding of and support for effective and humane responses to criminal behavior and victimization.

Cornell Law School web site on mental health and the law

The National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS)
The National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) is one of the most extensive sources of information on criminal and juvenile justice in the world.

http://www.ncianet.org/ncia/fall1999update.html
A joint project of the national Center on Institutions and Alternatives and the National Institute of Corrections, U.S. Department of Justice.

Mental Health and Treatment of Inmates and Probationers
Requires the Adobe Acrobat Reader (available Here)

Mental Health in Corrections Consortium

National Mental Health Association
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill

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