Residents in neighborhoods with high incarceration rates are more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety, according to a recent article in The New Republic.
The story quotes researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. They found elevated rates of major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder in neighborhoods with higher than average imprisonment rates.
The researchers reached the conclusion by cross-referencing address data from Michigan prison admissions files and mental health information from the Detroit Neighborhood Health Study, with additional information from 4,180 individuals questioned by phone, the author said.
“There’s absolutely no reason to believe that any of the damage done to mental health in Detroit is any different than it is in any other major city in this country,” said Katherine Keyes, an epidemiologist and one of the researchers in the study.
“The researchers found that removing large numbers of people from a community disrupts what they call the ‘social ecology.” It limits the availability of family and friends to provide the support, comfort, and assistance that helps sustain human mental health,” the author said. “In other words, when the threat of jail time is in the air, and your support network is diminished, the risk of major depression and debilitating anxiety grow.”
“A study showing that elevated community incarceration rates create ripple effects that unnerve human beings may sound obvious. But the findings matter (in) a country where nearly 3 percent of the adult population is in prison, on probation or parole, and federal officials estimate that one in three Black men will be ensnared in the criminal justice system in their lifetime,” the author cautioned.
