Mentally Ill Women in Prison
by Helena Cavendish de Moura

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Up until 1995, about six percent of the Georgia prison population was receiving mental health services, but in the next eight years – through 2003 – that number grew by about one percent a year. Now, about 15 to 15.5 percent of the total inmate population is receiving mental health services.

Some of this increase may be the result of reductions in community mental health services and substance abuse services that have been occurring since the 1990s. The mentally ill – especially those in rural communities where there are few mental health and substance abuse services – have few options.

Inmates with mental illness are trapped in a cycle of recidivism. Many come from poor communities where treatment and counseling are not available. Common offenses among the mentally-ill prisoners are loitering and drug use. Advocates say the mentally-ill are being punished for crimes that could have been avoided had they received appropriate treatment. Sometimes judges in rural counties prefer to incarcerate someone who is severely mentally ill because they will be able to receive mental services in the prison system. For the poor, prison is one of the only ways they can get help. But often help comes with a high price, and it arrives too late.