{"id":1671,"date":"2013-01-22T11:01:10","date_gmt":"2013-01-22T17:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/?p=1671"},"modified":"2014-02-12T11:46:37","modified_gmt":"2014-02-12T17:46:37","slug":"mental-health-and-second-chances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/2013\/01\/22\/mental-health-and-second-chances\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental Health and Second Chances"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>Today’s post is coauthored with Jason Schnittker for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Human Capital blog<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

More than 650,000 inmates are released from prison every year.[i]\u00a0 Although their debt to society may be paid, their struggles have just begun.\u00a0 Reentry is not easy.\u00a0 Former inmates need to find a place to live.\u00a0 They need to find a job.\u00a0 And many need to support families.\u00a0 All told, 4 million people in the U.S. are dealing with the \u201cmark\u201d of a prison record and its consequences for their work and personal lives.[ii]\u00a0 Most will struggle for years following their release.<\/p>\n

Given all these difficulties, it\u2019s hard to imagine health being a major part of their struggle.\u00a0 After all, many former inmates are still quite young and, for that reason, unlikely to suffer from major health problems.\u00a0 Mental health is part of the picture, but usually considered through a different lens:\u00a0 policy-makers ask how mental illness affects criminal offending\u2014that is, what leads to prison in the first place\u2014but rarely consider the pivotal role of mental health in making a successful return to the community.<\/p>\n

Yet the role of mental illness is just as relevant after release as before.[iii]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Many former inmates suffer from poor mental health.\u00a0 And these problems often get worse following release, given the many disadvantages they face.\u00a0 Former inmates suffer from many of the same disorders as other people, including depression and anxiety, albeit at higher rates. We know that substance disorders and psychosis are related to criminal offending, but former inmates suffer from mood and anxiety disorders too, and these conditions have received far less attention.\u00a0 Our own research suggests that depression plays an especially powerful role in shaping the reentry prospects of former inmates.[iv]<\/div>\n
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Insofar as we demand that former inmates become productive and responsible members of society, we may need to provide them with a little more help.\u00a0 Reintegration requires persistence, motivation, and a strong social network, all of which are undermined by mental health problems. \u00a0Mood and anxiety disorders, in particular, can rob individuals of motivation and initiative and undermine their relationships.\u00a0 Psychosis and substance abuse are, of course, important as well, especially in preventing new offending.\u00a0 But good health is more than the absence of these particular conditions, just as reintegration is more than the absence of particular criminal behaviors. Reintegration also implies successful adjustment to challenging work and family situations — and good overall health fortifies us all in meeting such challenges.<\/p>\n

To date, enthusiasm for better mental health treatment among former inmates has been limited.\u00a0 From a cost-benefit perspective, the role of treatment in reducing crime is inconclusive.[v]\u00a0 But evidence on the effectiveness of mental health treatment for other outcomes, including employment, is more favorable.[vi]\u00a0 The Affordable Care Act will help.[vii]\u00a0 A robust safety net of low cost service providers will help too.\u00a0 But true reform requires something more ambitious:\u00a0 the recognition that good health is a precondition to getting back on your feet.<\/p>\n

Jason Schnittker<\/strong>, PhD, and\u00a0Chris Uggen<\/strong>, PhD, both recipients of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)\u00a0<\/em>Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research<\/a>, recently published a study in the\u00a0<\/em>Journal of Health and Social Behavior\u00a0on\u00a0<\/em>incarceration and psychiatric disorders<\/a>. They found that incarceration increases the risk of mood disorders after release and that these disorders increase disability. Schnittker is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. Uggen is the Distinguished McKnight Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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i. http:\/\/www.justice.gov\/archive\/fbci\/progmenu_reentry.html<\/a><\/div>\n
ii. http:\/\/www.soc.umn.edu\/~uggen\/Uggen_Manza_Thompson_ANNALS_06.pdf<\/a><\/div>\n
iii. http:\/\/www.urban.org\/publications\/411617.html<\/a><\/div>\n
iv. http:\/\/hsb.sagepub.com\/content\/53\/4\/448.full<\/a><\/div>\n
v. http:\/\/www.nber.org\/papers\/w15858<\/a><\/div>\n
vi. http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/3768328?seq=1<\/a><\/div>\n
vii. http:\/\/content.healthaffairs.org\/content\/31\/5\/931<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s post is coauthored with Jason Schnittker for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Human Capital blog.\u00a0 More than 650,000 inmates are released from prison every year.[i]\u00a0 Although their debt to society may be paid, their struggles have just begun.\u00a0 Reentry is not easy.\u00a0 Former inmates need to find a place to live.\u00a0 They need to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[124,15],"class_list":["post-1671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crime","tag-culture"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/files\/2013\/01\/jwow1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1671"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1866,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671\/revisions\/1866"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}