Women’s Mental Health and the Conditions of Confinement

• In Event: 2132 - Topics in Criminology

Abstract

Research on incarceration and mental health has tended to focus exclusively on male inmates. However, previous research indicates that women experience prison differently than do men. Thus, it is important to examine how prisons impact women’s mental health. To this end, we use national data on 1,490 female state inmates and the 60 state prisons in which they reside to examine how prison conditions are associated with mental health symptoms, net of individual-level factors. Structural equation models indicate that prison factors such as overcrowding and the availability of work assignments are not significantly related to depression or hostility. However, the proportion of inmates who did not receive visits from their children in the last month was positively associated with both depression and hostility. In addition, inmates reported higher levels of hostility when the prison did not allow television and higher levels of depression when a higher proportion of inmates received punishments for rule infractions within the last month. Consonant with previous research, these results suggests the importance that visitation plays on female inmate well-being. This has important implications for future research that attempts to understand the mechanisms through which prison deprivations are linked to female inmate’s mental health.

Authors

• Timothy G Edgemon, University of Georgia

• Jody Clay-Warner, University of Georgia