Gender Differences in the Impact of Mental Health Treatment on Institutional Misconduct and Disciplinary Segregation in U.S. State Prisons

Abstract

The current study explores the role of mental health treatment (i.e., medication, counseling services) in mediating the relationships between mental illness, misconduct, and disciplinary segregation across sex. Using a nationally representative sample of incarcerated men (n = 10,415) and women (n = 2,687), gender-disaggregated KHB logistic regression models examine these relationships. Findings suggest that using mental health services while incarcerated may lessen the effects of mental illness on misconduct and subsequent disciplinary segregation for both incarcerated men and women, but these effects vary across gender by type of mental health diagnosis. Overall, the findings underscore the importance of gendered explorations of mental illness in the carceral experience.

Keywords

mental health gender differences treatment misconduct disciplinary segregation

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