Half of inmates in U.S. mentally ill

More than half of all prison and jail inmates have a mental health problem, according to a report released by the U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday.

The report, issued by the department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, found that 64 percent of local jail inmates – a higher percentage than both state and federal prison populations – showed symptoms of a mental disorder.

Inmates were more than five times as likely to have a mental health problem than people in the general populace, the authors wrote.

The report found that more than 1 million people imprisoned in the U.S. criminal justice system suffer from symptoms including depression, mania and psychotic disorders, among other problems.

The news was not a surprise in Spokane County, where jail pharmacy costs have risen from $125,000 in 1997 to $600,000 last year.

“Instead of getting better, it’s only getting worse,” said Lt. Joanne Lake, who heads the Spokane County Jail’s mental health programs.

The jail’s mental health wing has 46 beds – more than it did previously, but still too few to accommodate all the mentally ill among the 600 inmates.

“We have a lot of people with mental illness in our general population,” said Capt. Jerry Brady, the jail’s commander.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the jail’s pharmacy costs grew dramatically, increasing as much as 44 percent in a single year. Last year, the jail managed to rein in its prescription drug bill, in part by purchasing generic drugs and using a discount mail-order pharmacy in Pennsylvania.

In the past year, with local and state support, the county jail has hired additional staff and instituted new programs to address the problems, Brady said.

But the underlying issues – the lack of housing and community support – continued to push a flood of mentally ill criminals into overwhelmed county jails, he said.

“We treat them, medicate them, get them pretty stable, and then they’re kicked out the door and where do they go?” Brady said.

The study of 25,000 imprisoned people found that mental health problems were especially troublesome in local jails, where inmates were more likely to be involved with drugs and alcohol. In local jails, more than 75 percent of inmates with a mental health problem were abusing drugs or alcohol, and binge drinking was more prevalent among those with mental health problems.

Treatment and counseling also varied dramatically in U.S. jails and prisons. Nationally, state prisoners were twice as likely as local jail inmates to receive mental health treatment, according to the study.

The study found that mentally ill inmates were more likely to get in a prison fight, to have been victims of past sexual and physical abuse, and to have been homeless prior to their arrest.

A quarter of state prisoners with mental problems had been incarcerated three or more times in the past, and nearly 60 percent of them had been accused of violating prison rules.

Women had significantly higher rates of mental problems, the authors found.

In local jails, 75 percent of female inmates had exhibited mental health symptoms in the past year.