The Issues
People incarcerated in jails and prisons suffer higher rates of chronic medical conditions and behavioral health issues than the general population. They are disproportionately non-white and largely come from communities where residents already report overall poor health and lack of access to care. The disparities we see in our health care system are mirrored in our criminal justice system. The Center for Health and Justice Transformation works on the following issues in Rhode Island: Decriminalization, Criminal Justice Planning and Reentry.
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By The Numbers
Drug Dependence
- 58% of people in prisons and 63% of people serving a jail sentence meet the criteria for drug dependence, as compared to 4% of the general adult population.
- 1 in 5 people incarcerated in state prisons have a history of injection drug use.
- Among those in prison who have a serious mental illness, over 70 percent also have a co-occurring substance abuse disorder; in the general population, the corresponding percentage is about 25 percent.
- Almost half a million people are currently incarcerated in America because of a drug offense
Mental Health Issues
- 37% of people in prisons report having been diagnosed with a mental health disorder, along with 44% of people in jails.
- Incarcerated individuals in the U.S. are three to five times more likely to have a significant mental health issue than the general population.
- There are more people with serious mental health disorders in Chicago’s Cook County Jail, New York’s Riker’s Island, or the Los Angeles County Jail than there are in any single psychiatric hospital in the nation.
Mass U.S. Criminalization
- The U.S. comprises 5 percent of the world population but holds a quarter of the world prisoners.
- 2.3 million people in the United States are currently incarcerated in prisons while an additional 4.4 million people are supervised by probation or parole.
- 10.6 million people cycle in and out of jail each year in the United States.
- Black Americans are over five times more likely to be incarcerated than white Americans. 1 in 10 black men in his 30s is incarcerated on any given day.
- 77 million Americans have a criminal record
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The Center For Health and Justice Transformation is a partnership between Lifespan and Brown University. Established in 2005, CHJT is a non-partisan research, advocacy, education, and policy organization.
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