IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jlstud/doi10.1086-667773.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing the Contribution of the Deinstitutionalization of the Mentally Ill to Growth in the U.S. Incarceration Rate

Author

Listed:
  • Steven Raphael
  • Michael A. Stoll

Abstract

We assess the degree to which the mentally ill who would have been in mental hospitals in years past have been transinstitutionalized to prisons and jails. We also assess the contribution of deinstitutionalization to growth in the U.S. prison population. We find no evidence of transinstitutionalization for any demographic groups for the period 1950-80. However, for the 20-year period 1980-2000, we find significant transinstitutionalization rates for all men and women, with a relatively large transinstitutionalization rate for men in comparison to women and the largest transinstitutionalization rate observed for white men. Our estimates suggest that 4-7 percent of incarceration growth between 1980 and 2000 is attributable to deinstitutionalization. While this is a relatively small contribution to prison growth overall, the results suggest that a sizable portion of the mentally ill behind bars would not have been incarcerated in years past.

Suggested Citation

  • Steven Raphael & Michael A. Stoll, 2013. "Assessing the Contribution of the Deinstitutionalization of the Mentally Ill to Growth in the U.S. Incarceration Rate," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 42(1), pages 187-222.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlstud:doi:10.1086/667773
    DOI: 10.1086/667773
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/667773
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/667773
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/667773?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mateus Dias & Luiz Felipe Fontes, 2020. "The Effects of a Large-Scale Mental Health Reform: Evidence from Brazil," Working Papers 09, Instituto de Estudos para Políticas de Saúde.
    2. Randi Hjalmarsson & Matthew J. Lindquist, 2022. "The Health Effects of Prison," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 234-270, October.
    3. Mallory Avery & Jessica LaVoice, 2023. "The effect of “failed” community mental health centers on non‐white mortality," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(6), pages 1362-1393, June.
    4. Courtney C. Coile & Mark G. Duggan, 2019. "When Labor's Lost: Health, Family Life, Incarceration, and Education in a Time of Declining Economic Opportunity for Low-Skilled Men," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 33(2), pages 191-210, Spring.
    5. David J. Harding & Christopher Winship, 2016. "Population Growth, Migration, and Changes in the Racial Differential in Imprisonment in the United States, 1940–1980," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-37, July.
    6. Dias, Mateus & Fontes, Luiz Felipe, 2020. "The Effects of a Large-Scale Mental-Health Reform: Evidence from Brazil," MPRA Paper 104753, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ucp:jlstud:doi:10.1086/667773. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JLS .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.