Mass Incarceration

### What is Mass Incarceration?

Mass incarceration is defined as, “the imprisonment of a large proportion of a population (used in particular with reference to the significant increase in the rate of incarceration in the US in the late 20th Century)” . Out of America’s population, 0.7% are currently in a federal or state prison or jail, which is almost one out of 100. The United States incarcerates more people than China and any other nation across the globe. It also has the highest prison-population rate— 49 more than Rwanda, which is second with 580; one out of every five prisoners is incarcerated in the U.S.

Growing at an unprecedented rate, the federal imprisonment rate increased 518% from 1980 to 2013, increasing from 11 inmates for every 100,000 U.S. residents to 68 inmates for every 100,000 U.S. residents. Even in a shorter amount of time, when Reagan took office in 1980, there were 329,000 in prison, and by the end of his time in office, which was eight years later, the prison population was 627,000.

### Mass Incarceration and Mental Health

How are mass incarceration and mental health related? Approximately two out of five individuals incarcerated have a history of mental illness, 37 percent in state and federal prisons and 44 percent in local jails. Mental illness is seen as both a contributing factor and a consequence to mass incarceration as individuals with mental health problems are more likely to be in prison and prison conditions are likely to have a negative impact on mental health. Compared to those in the general population, mental illness is prevalent three to six times more in the population that is incarcerated.

It has also been argued that U.S. prisons have become a replacement for mental hospitals. Law enforcement has become the frontline response to mental illness crises, and jails and prisons have become “the new asylums”. Sometimes jails and prisons are referred to the largest psychiatric facilities. According to The Treatment Advocacy Center, “in 44 states, a jail or prison holds more mentally ill individuals than the largest remaining state psychiatric hospital.” The Treatment Advocacy Center also stated that, “individuals with psychiatric diseases like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are 10 times more likely to be in a jail or prison than in a hospital bed".

### Criminalization of Mental Illness

A contributing factor of mass incarceration is the criminalization of mental illness. The Due Justice Project defines the criminalization of mental illness as, “undue conviction and punishment, and in many cases, unjust prosecution…The basis of injustice is the essential nature of the neurologic symptomology of the neurologic disorders that are conceptualized as ‘mental illness’”. This criminalization has been attributed to the “lack of outpatient resources, poor funding, stigma, discrimination, lack of understanding, poor planning, ineffectual policies, and denial”.

### Looking to the Future: Hope for Change

There has been recognition of mass incarceration and its damages, and progress has been made in reducing it. The prison population has declined by about 10 percent through the 2010s. President Joe Biden also made a welcome reform executive order to the Department of Justice to phase out the use of private prisons.

1. ↑ Lexico. (n.d.). *Mass incarceration*. Oxford. https://www.lexico.com/
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Wagner, P., & Betram, W. (2020, January 16). *“What percent of the U.S. is incarcerated?” (And other ways to measure mass incarceration)*. Prison Policy Initiative. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/01/16/percent-incarcerated/
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Cullen, J. (2018, July 20). *The history of mass incarceration*. Brennan Center for Justice. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/history-mass-incarceration
4. ↑ *Highest to Lowest - Prison Population Rate*. (n.d.). World Prison Brief. https://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/prison\_population\_rate?field\_region\_taxonomy\_tid=All#tabletop
5. ↑ *Growth in federal prison system exceeds states’*. (2015, January 22). PEW. https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/fact-sheets/2015/01/growth-in-federal-prison-system-exceeds-states#:~:text=Between%201980%20and%202013%2C%20the%20federal%20imprisonment%20rate,with%20law%20enforcement%20and%20national%20security%20programs.%203
6. ↑ *Mental health by the numbers*. (n.d.). NAMI. https://nami.org/mhstats
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Resney, A. (2019 January). *Mass incarceration in the United States.* Ballard Brief. https://www.ballardbrief.org/our-briefs/mass-incarceration-in-the-united-states
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 *Criminalization of mental illness.* (n.d.). Treatment Advocacy Center. https://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/key-issues/criminalization-of-mental-illness
9. ↑ Criminalization of individuals with severe psychiatric disorders. (n.d.). *Mental Illness Policy*. https://mentalillnesspolicy.org/consequences/criminalization.html
10. ↑ *Criminalization of “mental illness”. What does this mean?* (n.d.). Due Justice Project. https://duejusticeproject.net/criminalization-of-mental-illness-what-does-this-mean/
11. ↑ Martinez, O. N. (2011, August 8). *The criminalization of mental illness*. Hogg Foundation for Mental Health. https://hogg.utexas.edu/the-criminalization-of-mental-illness
12. ↑ Biden, J. R. (2021, January 26). *Executive order on reforming our incarceration system to eliminate the use of privately operated criminal detention facilities.* The White House. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/26/executive-order-reforming-our-incarceration-system-to-eliminate-the-use-of-privately-operated-criminal-detention-facilities/