The authors created a model to examine the distance between jails and inpatient mental health care facilities in rural counties versus urban counties in New York State. Using U.S. census data, the top seven most rural counties and top seven most urban counties were selected for analysis. Results indicate that, overall, urban jails have closer access than rural jails to inpatient mental health care, with the furthest facilities for urban jails being 15.1 kilometers and the furthest for rural jails being 43.6 kilometers. The closest inpatient mental health care facility for urban jails was 174 meters, whereas the closest mental health care facility for rural jails was 0.02 kilometers. Average distance from inpatient mental health care was 4.3 kilometers for urban jails and 26 kilometers for rural jails. Policy implications are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ApplegateB. K., & SitrenA. H. (2008). The jail and the community: Comparing jails in rural and urban contexts. The Prison Journal, 88(2), 252–269. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032885508319207
2.
BlevinsK. R., & SoderstromI. R. (2015). The mental health crisis grows on: A descriptive analysis of DOC systems in America. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 54(2), 142–160. https://doi.org/10.1080/10509674.2015.1009965
3.
BolinJ. N., BellamyG. R., FerdinandA. O., VuongA. M., KashB. A., SchulzeA., & HelduserJ. W. (2015). Rural healthy people 2020: New decade, same challenges. Journal of Rural Health, 31(3), 326–333. https://doi.org/10.1111/jrh.12116
4.
BratinaM. P., CarreroK. M., BitnaK., & MerloA. V. (2020). Crisis intervention team training: When police encounter persons with mental illness. Police Practice and Research, 21(3), 279–296. https://doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2018.1484290
ComartinE. B., SwansonL., & KubiakS. (2019). Mental health crisis location and police transportation decisions: The impact of Crisis Intervention Team training on crisis center utilization. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 35(2), 241–260. https://doi.org/10.1177/1043986219836595
7.
DavisM. M., SpurlockM. D, ulackiK., MeathT., LiH. F., McCartyD., WarneD., WrightB., & McConnellK. (2016). Disparities in alcohol, drug use, and mental health condition prevalence and access to care in rural, isolated, and reservation areas: Findings from the South Dakota Health Survey. Journal of Rural Health, 32(3), 287–302. https://doi.org/10.1111/jrh.12157
8.
EllisH., & AlexanderV. (2017). The mentally ill in jail: Contemporary clinical and practice perspectives for psychiatric-mental health nursing. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 31(2), 217–222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2016.09.013
9.
EllsworthT., & WeisheitR. A. (1997). The supervision and treatment of offenders on probation: Understanding rural and urban differences. The Prison Journal, 77(2), 209–228. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032855597077002006
10.
FleischmannM. H., StrodeP. B, roussardB., & ComptonM. T. (2018). Law enforcement officers' perceptions of and responses to traumatic events: A survey of officers completing crisis intervention team training. Policing and Society, 28(2), 149–156. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2016.1234469
11.
GottschlichA. J., & CetnarG. (2002, August 20). Drug bills at jail top food costs. News Sun.
12.
HaneyC., WeillJ., BakhshayS., & LockettT. (2016). Examining jail isolation: What we don't know can be profoundly harmful. The Prison Journal, 96(1), 126–152. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032885515605491
13.
HarcourtB. E. (2011). Reducing mass incarceration: Lessons from the deinstitutionalization of mental hospitals in the 1960s (University of Chicago Law & Economics, Olin Working Paper 542). https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1748796#
Ivey-StephensonA. Z., CrosbyA. E., JackS. P. D., HaileyesusT., & Kresnow-SedaccaM. (2017). Suicide trends among and within urbanization levels by sex, race/ethnicity, age group, and mechanism of death—United States, 2001–2015. MMWR Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 66(18), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.ss6618a1
16.
KaebleD., GlazeL., TsoutisA., & MintonT. (2015). Correctional populations in the United States, 2014 (NCJ 249513). Bureau of Justice Statistics. https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/cpus14.pdf
17.
KeglerS. R., StoneD. M., & HollandK. M. (2017). Trends in suicide by level of urbanization—United States, 1999–2015. MMWR Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 66(10), 270–273. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6610a2
18.
KesslerR. C., ChiuW. T., DemlerO., MerikangasK. R., & WaltersE. E. (2005). Prevalence, severity, and comorbidity of 12-month DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62(6), 617–627. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.62.6.617
19.
KinslerP. J., & SaxmanA. (2007). Traumatized offenders: Don't look now, but your jail's also your mental health center. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 8(2), 81–95. https://doi.org/10.1300/J229v08n02_06
20.
MarcusP., & AlcabesP. (1993). Characteristics of suicides by inmates in an urban jail. Hospital & Community Psychiatry, 44(3), 256–261. https://doi.org/10.1176/ps.44.3.256
21.
MohattD. F., BradleyM. M., & AdamsS. J. (2005). Rural mental health: Challenges and opportunities caring for the country. In N. A. Cummings, W. T. O'Donohue, & M. A. Cucciare (Eds.), Universal healthcare: Readings for mental health professionals (pp. 127–150). Context Press.
22.
MulveyE. P., & SchubertC. A., (2017). Mentally ill individuals in prisons and jails. In M. Tonry & D. S. Nagin (Eds.), Crime and justice: A review of research: Vol. 46. Reinventing American criminal justice (pp. 231–277). University of Chicago Press Journals.
NovellaE. J. (2008). Theoretical accounts on deinstitutionalization and the reform of mental health services: A critical review. Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy, 11(3), 303–314. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-008-9123-5
PruittL. R., & ColganB. A. (2010). Justice deserts: Spatial inequality and local funding of indigent defense. Arizona Law Review, 52(2), 219–316.
28.
PruittL. R., KoolA. L., SudeallL., StatzM., ConwayD. M., & HaksgaardH. (2018). Legal deserts: A multi-state perspective on rural access to justice. Harvard Law & Policy Review, 13,15–156.
29.
RaceM., YousefianA., LambertD., & HartleyD. (2010). Mental health services in rural jails. (Working paper #42). University of Southern Maine, Muskie School of Public Service, Maine Rural Health Research Center.
30.
RaggioA. L., HoffmanN. G., & KopakA. M. (2017). Results from a comprehensive assessment of behavioral health problems among rural jail inmates. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 56(3), 217–235. https://doi.org/10.1080/10509674.2017.1290006
31.
RaphaelS., & StollM. A. (2013). Assessing the contribution of the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill to growth in the U.S. incarceration rate. Journal of Legal Studies, 42(1), 187–222. https://doi.org/10.1086/667773
32.
RuddellR., & MaysG. L. (2007). Rural jails: Problematic inmates, overcrowded cells, and cash-strapped counties. Journal of Criminal Justice, 35(3), 251–260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2007.03.002
SayersS. K., DominoM. E., CuddebackG. S., BarrettN. J., & MorrisseyJ. P. (2017). Connecting mentally ill detainees in large urban jails with community care. Psychiatric Quarterly, 88(2), 323–333. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-016-9449-8
35.
SchuttR. K. (2016). Social environment and mental illness: The progress and paradox of deinstitutionalization. In B. L. Perry (Ed.), 50 years after deinstitutionalization: Mental illness in contemporary communities (pp. 91–118). Emerald Group.
36.
SegalA. G., FrassoR., & SistiD. A. (2018). County jail or psychiatric hospital? Ethical challenges in correctional mental health care. Qualitative Health Research, 28(6), 963–976. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732318762370
37.
ShortS. R. (2018). Grassroots challenges to the effects of prison sprawl on mental health services for incarcerated people. Fordham Urban Law Journal, 45(2), 437–497. https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ulj/vol45/iss2/4
SullivanG., & SpritzerK. (1997). The criminalization of persons with serious mental illness living in rural areas. Journal of Rural Health, 13(1), 6–13. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-0361.1997.tb00829.x
41.
Taylor SalisburyT., KillaspyH., & KingM. (2016). An international comparison of the deinstitutionalisation of mental health care: Development and findings of the Mental Health Services Deinstitutionalisation Measure (MENDit). BMC Psychiatry, 16, 54. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-016-0762-4
TullyT., & SmithM. (2015). Officer perceptions of crisis intervention team training effectiveness. Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles, 88(1), 51–64. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X15570558
Weiss RileyR., Kang-BrownJ., MulliganC., ValsalamV. C, hakrabortyS., & HenrichsonC. (2018). Exploring the urban-rural incarceration divide: Drivers of local jail incarceration rates in the United States. Journal of Technology in Human Services, 36(1), 76–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/15228835.2017.1417955
47.
WinklerP., BarrettB., McCroneP., CsémyL., Janous̆kováM., & HöschlC. (2016). Deinstitutionalised patients, homelessness and imprisonment: Systematic review. British Journal of Psychiatry, 208(5), 421–428. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.114.161943
