GALVESTON, Texas - Inmates with a major mental illness are more likely than other offenders to be incarcerated repeatedly, according to a new study by Jacques Baillargeon, an epidemiologist and associate professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
The findings are the result of a year-long study of 79,000 offenders within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, one of the nation's largest state prison systems.
Baillargeon said that about 8,000 of the TDCJ offenders were diagnosed with a major psychiatric disorder such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or nonschizophrenia psychotic. For almost all psychiatric diagnoses, the odds of a multiple incarcerations increased. For example, inmates with bipolar disorder were more than three times as likely to have had four or more previous incarcerations since the year 2000 when compared to inmates with no mental illness.
"To reduce the cycle of repeat imprisonment for people with severe mental illness, we should consider a number of interventions, including alternative correctional facilities with appropriate clinical care for psychiatric illness," Baillargeon said.
"If we are truly interested in reducing recidivism among our prison population, this is an area worth exploring," he said.
The findings will be published in the December issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry and is online at http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/pap.dtl.
Other authors include Ingrid Binswanger, J.V. Penn, B.A. Williams and Dr. Owen Murray.