Psychiatric Deinstitutionalization and Prison Population Growth

Abstract

A substantial amount of research has been devoted to explaining the reasons behind the unprecedented explosion of U.S. prison populations. While the majority of prior studies related imprisonment to four factors—specifically crimes, changes in the labor markets, politics, and demographic changes—other relevant factors have not received as much attention. In the historical context of decreases in mental hospital populations resulting from psychiatric deinstitutionalization, imprisonment rates have skyrocketed nationwide since the late 1970s. This inverse relationship between both trends has called for prior research that empirically examines the impact of mental hospitalization on imprisonment, especially through the criminalization of mental illness. However, empirical findings are equivocal in general at the aggregate level. This article conducts a comprehensive and critical literature review, discusses the important conceptual and methodological limitations of the existing literature, and finally provides guidance for future research.