How Far Up the River? Criminal Justice Contact and Health Outcomes

Abstract

Research has shown negative health outcomes from felony imprisonment. The conditions that create and exacerbate physical and mental health outcomes on the felony side—exposure to disease, lack of health care, and stress—are reflected in other less severe forms of criminal justice contact. Given that the low-level contact has grown along with prison incarceration, the health effects of less severe forms of criminal justice contact should be investigated. Using 10 waves from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 ([NLSY97), this project explores the impact on self-reported physical and mental health from the continuum of contact, namely, an arrest, conviction, and jail sentence. The results show that low-level forms of contact negatively affect both physical and mental health throughout the continuum of contact. The role of the type of conviction is investigated, providing a more nuanced understanding of how points of contact operate on essential outcomes such as physical and mental health.