The Collateral Damage of Mass Incarceration: Risk of Psychiatric Morbidity Among Nonincarcerated Residents of High-Incarceration Neighborhoods

Objectives. We examined whether residence in neighborhoods with high levels of incarceration is associated with psychiatric morbidity among nonincarcerated community members.Methods. We linked zip code–linked information on neighborhood prison admissions rates to individual-level data on mental health from the Detroit Neighborhood Health Study (2008–2012), a prospective probability sample of predominantly Black individuals.Results. Controlling for individual- and neighborhood-level risk factors, individuals living in neighborhoods with high prison admission rates were more likely to meet criteria for a current (odds ratio OR] = 2.9; 95% confidence interval CI] = 1.7, 5.5) and lifetime (OR = 2.5; 95% CI = 1.4, 4.6) major depressive disorder across the 3 waves of follow-up as well as current (OR = 2.1; 95% CI = 1.0, 4.2) and lifetime (OR = 2.3; 95% CI = 1.2, 4.5) generalized anxiety disorder than were individuals living in neighborhoods with low prison admission rates. These relationships between neighborhood-level incarceration and mental health were comparable for individuals with and without a personal history of incarceration.Conclusions. Incarceration may exert collateral damage on the mental health of individuals living in high-incarceration neighborhoods, suggesting that the public mental health impact of mass incarceration extends beyond those who are incarcerated.The United States leads the world in the percentage of its population that serves time in prison or jail.1,2 As of 2012, nearly 7 million men and women are on probation, parole, or under some other form of community supervision, which means that nearly 3% of the American adult population is currently involved in correctional supervision.3 The burden of incarceration in the United States is not equally distributed in the population. Current estimates from the Bureau of Justice Statistics indicate that 1 of every 3 Black men will serve time in prison in their lifetimes.4 In some communities, these figures are even starker. In Washington, DC, for example, more than 95% of Black men have been in prison in their lifetimes.1 Because of the scope of incarceration within particular subgroups, the current state of the US criminal justice system has been described in such terms as mass imprisonment5 and hyperincarceration.6Research on the health consequences of incarceration falls largely into 2 broad categories. The first, which has received the most empirical attention, has focused on individuals directly involved in the criminal justice system. Individual incarceration exposure is associated with adverse mental7–9 and physical10 health outcomes. A second line of inquiry has evaluated the broader health consequences of incarceration—what has been variously called the “long arm” of corrections,11 the collateral consequences of mass incarceration,5 and “spillover” effects related to incarceration.12 For example, female partners of recently released male prisoners experience depression and anxiety symptoms,13,14 and the children of incarcerated parents are at increased risk for behavioral and mental health problems.15,16 The deleterious health effects of incarceration are not merely confined to the family members of incarcerated individuals, however. Nonincarcerated individuals living in the communities from which inmates are drawn also appear to be at heightened risk for a variety of adverse outcomes, including increased crime rates17 and infectious diseases.18Although this research provides important initial insights into some of the negative consequences of incarceration at the community level, it remains largely unknown whether incarceration influences the mental health of community members who reside in neighborhoods with high-incarceration rates. How might incarceration affect community mental health? High levels of incarceration in neighborhoods can alter the social ecology of communities by eroding social capital and disrupting the kinds of social and family networks and relationships that are necessary for sustaining individuals’ mental health as well as the well-being of communities.1,19–22We examined whether high levels of incarceration in neighborhoods affect the mental health of individuals living in these neighborhoods. We treated incarceration as an ecological or contextual effect, rather than as an individual-level risk factor, which has characterized the majority of research on incarceration and mental health.7,23 That is, rather than examining the mental health consequences of incarceration among those who have themselves been incarcerated or among their family members, we examined the mental health of individuals living in communities that have been exposed to elevated levels of incarceration.