Recidivism among mentally disordered offenders: An Ontario study

Abstract

The de-institutionalization of mental health facilities believed to be responsible for the "criminalization" of mental illness has lead to a large number of persons with a mental illness to come into contact with the correctional system. Once labelled as an 'offender', it is difficult to gain access to mental health resources. Consequently, a significant number of mentally ill persons who are also criminal offenders find themselves caught in a vicious cycle of incarceration, release and subsequent re-incarceration, without ever benefiting from psychiatric treatment. Recidivism is the most commonly used measure of the performance of the correctional system; however, there is little research on the rates of recidivism of mentally ill offenders within corrections. Multiple logistic regression revealed that mentally disordered offenders were twice as likely as non-mentally disordered offenders to have recontact with the provincial correctional system; however, survival analysis showed that they came into re-contact at the same rate.