The Revolving Prison Door: Article Analysis

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The College of New Jersey | Assignment 3 | | With the variety of journal articles to choose from, “Psychiatric Disorders and Repeat incarcerations: The Revolving Prison Door” caught my interest. As an undergraduate Criminology student it was very interesting to read an article referring to how psychology (mental disorders) and the criminal justice system are compatible. The data was correlational because the journal attempts to determine how related psychiatric disorders and recidivism in correctional populations are. In the introduction the researchers defined their problem or question. The epidemic of psychiatric disorders in the U.S prison system is a national problem. According to The Bureau of Justice Statistics (2008), “half of inmates—over 1 million individuals—have at least one mental health condition “(p.2). Many of…show more content…
The study showed that psychiatric disorders were far more likely to have had previous incarcerations compared with inmates without a mental illness. The researchers found that “the risk of having four or more incarcerations in the 6-year study period was particularly high for inmates with a bipolar disorder” (p.4). On the whole, the study showed that inmates with disorders usually have high recidivism rates. With the downsizing of psychiatric hospitals and limited availability to community based mental health services, this is a serious issue that the criminal justice system needs to look closer at. This was the first study to study the association between psychiatric disorders and multiple episodes of incarceration in an entire state prison population. There were several limitations that should have been considered in interpreting the study. They examined only incarcerations in the Texas prison system, the inmates were only evaluated for severe psychiatric disorders, and the researchers had incomplete access to historical incarceration

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