Conditions of Confinement and Incarcerated Women’s Mental Health

Abstract

Research on incarceration and mental health from a deprivation perspective has focused primarily on incarcerated men, rendering the links between prison deprivations and women’s mental health largely unknown. Previous research indicates, however, that women experience prison differently than do men, making it important to examine how prison conditions impact women’s mental health. Here, we use national data on 1490 women incarcerated in the United States and the 60 state prisons in which they reside to examine the links between prison conditions and symptoms of mental health conditions, net of individual-level factors. Hierarchal negative binomial regression models indicate that the punitiveness of the prison environment, the recent occurrence of a suicide in the prison, and fewer prison programs are all associated with symptom count. These results have important implications for understanding the mechanisms through which prison deprivations are linked to women’s mental health.