Mental Illness & Incarceration in Indiana
It’s no surprise that people with mental health conditions are over-represented in our nation’s jails and prisons. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, about two in five incarcerated people, or 40%, have a history of mental illness—a rate twice as high as the general population in the U.S.
The Indiana Department of Corrections (IDOC) reports that the vast majority of inmates in the Indiana prisons are free of mental illness, and only 23% suffer mentally. However Prison Policy Initiative studies report that 43% of people in state prisons have been diagnosed with a mental disorder, locally-run jails are at 44%, and juvenile detention facilities say it is higher.
Why all the discrepancies? It depends on what is considered a mental illness. Depression? Anxiety? Suicidal or murderous thoughts? It's a sliding scale and mental health professionals differ in what constitutes actual mental illness. Here in Indiana incoming inmates are screened by a mental health-trained nurse. Most offenders with "lower-level" mental issues are housed in "general population." The 1.5% (350 or so) of inmates that IDOC considers more seriously affected by mental illness are housed in SNAP units (which stands for Special Needs Acclimation Program) where there is treatment, monitoring, and support for inmates.
IDOC says any patient can ask for mental health services at any time during their incarceration and will be seen within seven days of the request. Seven days seems long to me. As a person who had a relative with mental health issues, I know that a quick response in a crisis situation can avoid serious ramifications. But that's a family, not a state-wide prison system that is dealing with all kinds of mental health issues. Understandably, some prison officials may believe that an inmate who is seeking mental health services is having a “normal” reaction to an institutionalized setting. It’s possible.
Clearly, The state of Indiana believes IDOC is housing a far smaller percentage of inmates with mental disorders than the national averages from many sources. Perhaps Hoosiers are more hearty than the rest of the country. But, with about 24,000 inmates in Indiana prisons, the difference between national findings of 40% and IDOC findings of 23%, may indicate that there could be more than 4,000 inmates with unrecognized mental illness who are not being treated in any way for the issues that plague them.
Nancy
