The Effect of Being in Prison on Mental Health

Amy Taylor April 10, 2013

Often, prisons are perceived as ‘mental health facilities’. But for experts, they are not. Prisons are more of a confinement – confinement without therapy.

In an article published in the online journal Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, researchers tackled the rising rate of mental health problems in prisons. According to Luke Birmingham, the lead author and a senior lecturer at the University of Southampton, mental health issues are the most common cause of morbidity in prisons, and that 90 per cent of inmates suffer from mental disorder. What makes their situation even more difficult is that most of these people don’t get to receive proper support and therapy. Alongside the prison environment and the restrictions, rules and policies that surround them, prisoners are more often denied access to therapy and recovery. The sad truth is that the NHS had no obligations to support prisoners until recently, following a partnership with the Prison Service. It is expected that the NHS will be more active in providing quality mental health services to people behind bars.

Mental Illness, More Common in Prisons

The world, including the entire mental health care community was shocked when the news about Jan Green broke in 2009. She was a mother of four who was arrested for a suspicion of having committed domestic violence after attacking her husband with a frying pan. During the court proceedings, it was found that Green had been suffering for years from periodic bouts of mental illness and therefore needs treatment. Instead of receiving therapy, Green claimed to have been left rotting for two years until charges against her were dropped. The treatment she was supposed to get was nothing but being pepper-sprayed on the face and being thrown into a solitary cell.

Green is just among the hundreds if not thousands of prisoners who received maltreatment instead of therapy throughout their years of imprisonment. Being imprisoned could be the most difficult thing that a person could experience, especially those who have mental health issues.

Even before, the prevalence of mental illness in prisons has always been an issue. Unfortunately, there was a little action taken to address this problem. In a study conducted by the National Statistics (ONS), it was shown that 9 out of 10 prisoners demonstrate symptoms of one or more mental disorders. 10 per cent of men and 14 per cent of women in prisons showed signs of a psychotic illness which is far greater than the 04 per cent prevalence in the general household population, according to a study by Meltzer, et al in 1994. There was also a high risk of committing suicide among prisoners. In the same study, a quarter of female prisoners reported to having attempted suicide in the previous year while 2 per cent of both male and female prisoners reported to having attempted suicide in the week prior to their interview. Comorbidity is also common in prisons. 7 out of 10 inmates had more than one mental disorder, and those with functional psychosis are more likely to have three or four other issues, such as drug and alcohol abuse.

Factors affecting Mental Health in Prisons

Prison and Trauma:

Prison can be a very traumatic place, even for the most hardened criminals. It can be a place where their rights can be totally abused by their fellow prisoners. In the statistics provided by the Ministry of Justice, among the 86,000 prisoners in UK in 2011, there were over 24,000 recorded incidents of self-harm, affecting less than 7,000 of prisoners. Sexual abuse is also a common scenario. But violence is not limited to the inmates. Some prisoners also experience physical, verbal and emotional abuse from their wardens. All these things can cause severe trauma to prisoners, a fact that exacerbate their condition. Prisoners who experience violence are more prone to anxiety issues, clinical depression, phobia and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Lack of Support:

This is another problem that aggravates the mental distress experienced by many prisoners. Last month, Justice Secretary Chris Grayling announced his plan to put an end to Britain’s ‘holiday camp’ jails which will result to the banning of Sky TV, reducing television sets in prisons, and restricting the amount of money prisoners can hold. This ‘Spartan jail’ regime is the first tough approach in dealing with inmates for the past 60 years in UK. But other than being deprived of these unessential pleasures, many prisoners also lack social support. The fact that they are far from their families and close friends makes their life in cell more depressing and debilitating. Some inmates’ families live in far-flung places, making a regular visit almost impossible while others are from impoverished social background that making a 5-minute phone call can be very costly.

Getting Out:

While the government does its best to observe justice in serving sentences to prisons, there are some instances when prisoners are being overly sentenced for their offenses. And most of those who have experienced violence and abuse during imprisonment, but did not receive proper treatment for their mental issues are more likely to develop serious illnesses – a fact that increases their risk of committing the same offense again after they have been released.

The points tackled above only show that there is a real threat on mental health inside the prison. The fact that many prisoners do not receive proper therapy, rather violence, discrimination and abuse from their fellow prisoners and from security officers is enough to conclude that the mental health will continue to become a big problem, unless otherwise steps are taken. The case of Jan Green and all other prisoners who have experienced harassment, sexual abuse, trauma and persistent violence simply tell us that mental health in prisons is something that should not be ignored. For decades until this very moment, many prisoners continue to struggle with their mental health disorders. Even though they could not voice it out, they too, regardless of the crimes they’ve committed, are in need of help most particularly in battling with mental illness.

Dear Readers,

Could the level of mental health support in prisons, if improved, help them integrate peacefully back into society without re-offending?

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