Events of 2007
Grant will help those released from prison to achieve housing and recovery.

The Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) awarded $48,855 to MHS to help those with serious mental disorders who are returning to Cuyahoga County from prisons to achieve stable housing. The funds will provide case management and supportive services. MHS will partner with EDEN, Inc., in this CSH Ohio Returning Home Pilot program. The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (ODRC) is another project partner.

MHS staff members will travel to northeast Ohio prisons to interview and assess prisoners identified by the ODRC. Participation in the program is voluntary. Those who agree to participate will work with an MHS staff member to identify safe and affordable housing in Cuyahoga County, establish a lease with the property owner, and make timely payments for rent and utilities. Participants will also negotiate an Individualized Service Plan to establish healthcare and behavioral goals, and formulate the steps to their achievement.

Eric Morse, the MHS Director of Homeless Services, wrote the proposal for the project, to respond to the growing numbers of mentally-ill persons who had recently been in prison, but are now homeless, and sleeping at the MHS Emergency Shelter for Disabled Men, the MHS Community Women's Shelter, and in other homeless shelters in Cuyahoga County. In January 2006, The Plain Dealer reported that "Ohio was treating 8,371 mentally ill prisoners to the tune of about $67 million a year. The mentally ill represent 18 percent of all the people in state prisons. Those numbers do not include mentally ill prisoners held in county jails, for which figures are not available."

Before mentally-ill prisoners who have no home to which to return are released to Cuyahoga County, ODRC contacts MHS. Outreach workers in our PATH Prison Pilot Program travel to the Ohio correctional facility to discuss MHS services with the prisoner before his or her release. Those who agree to services immediately begin to work with the MHS outreach worker. The grant award from CSH will fund additional case management and supportive services, for which current funding is inadequate. MHS thanks CSH for its generous award.

Mental health problems and disorders
among prison and jail inmates.

Nearly half of state prison inmates, and more than 60% of local jail inmates have a mental health disorder, based on currently accepted diagnostic criteria, according to the study from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Bipolar (manic-depressive) disorders are most common, affecting 43-55% of inmates. Next most common is major depressive disorder, affecting 16-30% of inmates, and a psychotic disorders, affecting 10-24%. Inmates of local jails have a much higher incidence of these mental disorders than inmates of state or federal prisons.

Mental health problems and disorders
among the general population of the U.S.A.

In striking contast, only 10% of adults in the general population have these disoders, as shown in the table at left.

Major depression is most common disorder among all U.S. adults, affecting 8-10%.

The bipolar disorders, affecting 43-55% of inmates, affect less than 2% of members of the general population. Bipolar disorders are characterized by episodes of severe disturbances in mood, thinking, judgement, and behavioral control.

The need for supportive services for mentally-ill individuals returning to the community from jails and prisons is further highlighted by the high percentage of them who have been homeless, victims of physical and sexual abuse, and raised by parents who had alcohol and drug addictions, as shown in the table below.

Selected characteristics of prison inmates
with and without mental health problems.

About one of eight mentally-ill state prisoners, and one of six mentally-ill people in local jails had been homeless in the year prior to their arrest, according to a recent study from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Three of four mentally-ill persons in state prisons and local jails have a substance abuse or dependence disorder, and one in four had suffered prior physical or sexual abuse.

References

Puente, Mark. (2006, January 20). Care of mentally ill prisoners costly for jails. Cleveland, OH: The Plain Dealer, pp. B1 & B5. Search for the article.

James, D.J. & Glaze, L.E. (2006, September). Mental health problems of prison and jail inmates. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Retrieve the study from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

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It was most recently updated on 6 November 2007.
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