Mental health care in correctional facilities presents several challenges, including addressing mental health conditions, substance abuse, and adaptation challenges for inmates with mental health conditions. Additionally, the lack of communication among corrections entities and between corrections and the community can create barriers to providing adequate mental health care. Furthermore, the growing population of geriatric inmates poses significant challenges in managing chronic diseases and environmental modifications within correctional facilities.
Approximately 20% of the roughly 2.5 million individuals incarcerated in the United States have a serious mental illness (SMI). This presents ethical challenges for correctional facility personnel, who often feel that there are too many inmates with SMI in jail who would benefit from more comprehensive treatment elsewhere. However, given limited resources, employees feel they are doing the best they can .
In addition, the United States prison system is generally built on a male-specific model, leaving many correctional facilities significantly unprepared to meet the unique biological, psychological, and social health needs of women. This has a negative impact on the health of female inmate populations and presents a challenge that must be addressed. Trauma care, rehabilitation, comprehensive pre-release planning, and effective post-release case management may positively influence health outcomes and ultimately lead to decreased female prison populations and lower rates of recidivism .
Furthermore, at midyear 2005, more than half of all prison and jail inmates had a mental health problem, including 705,600 inmates in State prisons and 78,800 in Federal prisons. This highlights the widespread prevalence of mental health issues among incarcerated individuals, emphasizing the need for improved mental health care in correctional facilities .
President Biden has also recognized the need to increase mental health resources for justice-involved populations, as approximately 40 percent of incarcerated individuals have a mental illness, yet merely one-third receive treatment. The Department of Justice will expand funding and technical assistance to local communities and corrections systems to provide behavioral health care, case management services, family services, and other transitional programming for adults returning from incarceration into the community .