Gender, Geography, and Justice: Behavioral Health Needs and Mental Health Service Use Among Women in Rural Jails

Published date01 September 2021
DOI10.1177/00938548211017588
Date01 September 2021
Subject MatterArticles
CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, 2021, Vol. 48, No. 9, September 2021, 1229 –1242.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00938548211017588
Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions
© 2021 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology
1229
GENDER, GEOGRAPHY, AND JUSTICE
Behavioral Health Needs and Mental Health Service
Use Among Women in Rural Jails
ERIN B. COMARTIN
Wayne State University
AMANDA BURGESS-PROCTOR
Oakland University
JENNIFER HARRISON
Western Michigan University
SHERYL KUBIAK
Wayne State University
This multi-jail study examines the behavioral health needs and service use in a sample of 3,787 individuals in jail, to compare
women in rural jails to their gender and geography counterparts (that is rural men, urban women, and urban men). Compared
to urban women (17.9%, n = 677), rural men (18.2%, n = 690), and urban men (56.1%; n = 2,132), rural women (7.6%,
n = 288) had significantly higher odds of serious mental illness and co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders.
Rural woman were nearly 30 times more likely to receive jail-based mental health services; however, a discrepancy between
screened mental health need (43.1%, n = 124) and jail-identified mental health need (8.4%, n = 24) shows rural women are
severely under-identified compared to their gender/geography counterparts. These findings have implications for the chang-
ing nature of jail populations and suggests the need to improve behavioral health identification methods.
Keywords: women; rural jails; behavioral health
Although jail incarceration rates in the United States are trending downward, the
population of women in jail continues to rise. There are approximately 110,000
women in U.S. jails today, a number 14 times higher than in 1970 (Swavola et al., 2016).
Between 2005 and 2017, the population of men in jail nationwide decreased by 3% while
the population of women in jail increased by 20% (Zeng, 2018). This exponential growth
has been especially concentrated in rural jurisdictions, counties with a population below
AUTHORS’ NOTE: The authors report no conflicts of interest for this study. The study was funded by the
State’s Department of Health & Human Services. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed
to Erin B. Comartin, School of Social Work, Wayne State University, 5477 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI 48202;
e-mail: at9766@wayne.edu.
1017588CJBXXX10.1177/00938548211017588Criminal Justice and BehaviorComartin et al. / Short Title
research-article2021

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