Slipping Through the Cracks

• Author: Jennifer Eno Louden,Elijah P. Ricks
• DOI: 10.1177/0093854815605525
• Published date: 01 April 2016
• Date: 01 April 2016
• Subject Matter: Articles

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, 2016, Vol. 43, No. 4, April 2016, 525 –538.

DOI: 10.1177/0093854815605525

© 2015 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology

525

SLIPPING THROUGH THE CRACKS

Is Mental Illness Appropriately Identified

Among Latino Offenders?

ELIJAH P. RICKS

Roosevelt University

JENNIFER ENO LOUDEN

The University of Texas at El Paso

Among U.S. offenders, both ethnic minorities and persons with mental illness are overrepresented. In communities, ethnic

minorities are less likely than European Americans to receive mental health treatment, despite having similar need. Many

barriers to treatment (e.g., financial and transportation) are removed in prisons; therefore, we sought to understand whether

and how ethnicity relates to identification of mental illness (a proxy for treatment receipt) among prisoners. Due to the growth

of the Latino population, we focused on Latino offenders. We examined records from two states with high proportions of

Latino offenders to determine whether the likelihood of being identified with a mental illness differed by ethnicity. Offenders

who had a mental disorder were disproportionately likely to be European American or African American and less likely to

be Latino. We offer suggestions for future research on ethnic disparities in correctional mental health to promote best prac-

tices with vulnerable offenders.

Keywords: mental health; Latino; prison; ethnicity; treatment

The United States incarcerates more people per capita than any other country in the

world. A recent estimate (Glaze & Herberman, 2013) is that 1 in every 35 people in the

United States is under correctional supervision in some form, with 1 in every 108 adults

behind bars. Among those incarcerated, disadvantaged groups are often overrepresented.

Two such groups have separately received increasing attention from researchers in recent

years: offenders with mental illness (e.g., Fazel & Seewald, 2012) and ethnic minority

AUTHORS’ NOTE: Elijah P. Ricks, Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at El Paso; Jennifer

Eno Louden, Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at El Paso. Elijah P. Ricks is now at

Department of Psychology, Roosevelt University, Chicago. Portions of these findings were presented at the

annual conference for the American Psychology-Law Society in March 2015. This research was supported in

part by a grant from The University of California, Irvine, Center for Evidence-Based Corrections. Jennifer

Skeem was instrumental in obtaining the California data. Nothing in this article is intended to reflect the opin-

ions or findings of either the Arizona Department of Corrections or the California Department of Corrections

and Rehabilitation. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Elijah P. Ricks, Department

of Psychology, Roosevelt University, 430 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60605; e-mail: ericks01@roosevelt.

edu.

605525CJBXXX10.1177/0093854815605525Criminal Justice And BehaviorRicks, Eno Louden / Identifying Mentally Ill Latino Offenders

research-article2015