Abstract
The public holds a stereotyped view of mentally ill criminals as highly dangerous. If criminal justice officials share this perception, we can expect that mentally disordered offenders will be singled out for differential handling. This research investigates the role of an inmate's psychiatric history in parole release decisions. We find that inmates with a history of pre-prison psychiatric hospitalization do not uniformly experience longer periods of incarceration when compared to other similarly situated inmates. We also find that assaultive offense behavior is given greater weight in the release decisions of inmates with known mental health involvement. These findings are discussed in terms of the parole board's dual responsibility to protect society from future harm and to insure that an inmate has received the maximum benefit from incarceration.
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