The incidences at Ferguson has generated a lot of discussion on similar/related issues. That incarceration creates stress and related psychological impact on first time offenders (however innocent we may consider them otherwise) needs hardly any elaboration. That there is a racial connotation to prison sentences further compounds the issue. However, it would depend a lot on how we define "mental disease" to actually relate it to the question. You may like to check out the following links.

http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/prison2home02/haney.htm

http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/uploads/documents/Mentalhealthsmall.pdf

http://scholar.google.co.in/scholar?q=mental+stress+and+imprisonment&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart&sa=X&ei=4IAEVM3qMJPjuQTKw4CYCg&ved=0CBsQgQMwAA

Have a great day.

Yes, I have already checked a couple of those references.  It appears that you are leaning towards a positive that imprisonment can be a pathway towards mental health issues, and the subsequent human activities while in prison often cause the offender to fall into mental distress.  Thanks for the response.  I'll get on those references.

You might want to look at research on post-traumatic growth.  This is based on a risk and resiliency model.   A genetic components that has been explored in foster care that could be applicable.  Additionally, Ganzel's allostatic model could help on this topic.   Stressors have been found to result in incidents of intimate partner violence which could support your basic premise.   I'd  also be interested in exploring polyvictimization history in childhood and whether the experience of incarceration is more strongly or less strongly correlated with mental health outcomes.  

Tedeschi, R., & Calhoun , L. (1996). The posttraumatic growth inventory: measuring the positive legacy of trauma. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 9:3, 455-471.

Laufer, A., & Solomon, Z. (2006). Posttraumatic symptoms and posttraumatic growth among Israeli youth exposed to terror incidents. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology,

Kaufman, J., Yang, B., Douglas-Palumberi, H., Grasso, D., Lipschitz, D., Houshyar, S., . . . Gelernter, J. (2006). Brain-derived neurotrophic factor-5-HHTLPR gene interactions and environmental modifiers of depression in children. Biological Psychiatry, 59(8), 673-680. 10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.10.026

Ganzel, B., Morris, P., & Wethington, E. (2010). Allostasis and the human brain: Integrating models of stress from the social and life sciences. Psychological Review, 117(1), 134-174. 10.1037/a0017773

Roberts, A., McLaughlin, K., Conron, K., & Koenen, K. (2011). Adulthood stressors, history of childhood adversity, and risk of perpetration of intimate partner violence. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 40(2), 128-138. 10.1016/j.amepre. 2010.10.016

Green, J. G., McLaughlin, K. A., Berglund, P. A., Gruber, M. J., Sampson, N. A., Zaslavsky, A. M., & Kessler, R. C. (2010). Childhood adversities and adult psychiatric disorders in the national comorbidity survey replication I: associations with first onset of DSM-IV disorders. Archives of general psychiatry, 67(2), 113-123.

McLaughlin, K. A., Green, J. G., Gruber, M. J., Sampson, N. A., Zaslavsky, A. M., & Kessler, R. C. (2010). Childhood adversities and adult psychiatric disorders in the national comorbidity survey replication II: associations with persistence of DSM-IV disorders. Archives of general psychiatry, 67(2), 124-132.

I would also look into the literature on solitary confinement and the use of Supermax prisons. Research is indicating that the effects exceed just depression and simple anxiety, but include paranoia and disassociation. amongst a wide range of other symptoms.Check out this article for a start. Arrigo, B. A., & Bullock, J. L. (2008). The Psychological Effects of Solitary Confinement on Prisoners in Supermax Units Reviewing What We Know and Recommending What Should Change. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 52(6), 622-640.  If you want to tie in a racial angle, examine some of the literature on how decisions are made in transferring to Supermax based on erroneous or manufactured "gang affiliation" information. Also be sure to examining the degree of mental health services availability in a regular prison compared to Supermax style prisons.

Thank you all - some excellent information and references.  I want to limit the subject matter, thus reducing the research footprint, my problem being that once I expand I really expand. I have some excellent resources from the Veterans Administration on PTSD (I have it from my time in three hostile deployments in the service).  The depression eats up your entire being, physically and mentally.  The supermax connection ties directly to the racial aspect.  I think I can show that youthful black offenders who enter prison in a fairly stable mental condition, become depressed by confinement, isolation, fear, and supervision by guards who do not understand the mental factors and have little regard for their charges.  We have one supermax in Virginia.  Again, thank you all so very much.

The answer to this question - is both yes and no. Perhaps the question should be more framed in "to what extent incarceration (1.  remand, solitary, 3 cell unit, 6 cell unit, single cell unit ..., 2. then talk about the length of imprisonment...., 3. kind of prison county, federal, state, private..etc;  and, 4.  classification of prison open, medium, low, community, home detention..etc ) accounts for mental disease?

Also you note mental disease - you need to again unpack this - for disease is different from illness, difficulties, disorder (e.g., psychiatric  and psychological) ....symptomoloiges

Also disease simply refers to a pathological medical condition and always referred to by an external source such as virus

Also not sure whether you mean the aetiology of the mental disease due to incarceration  

Keep in mind also that for some - being in Prison is more safe and secure than being outside - so again we need to think of what % of the popluation incarcerated are likely to have mental health issues/concerns...etc but this gets complicated - as to how and when one is diagnosed and by whom and the credibility of the both prognosis and the timing of diagnosis - which again requires a critical methodological approach 

After unpacking some of these initial concepts  in terms of the  incarceration and what you mean by mental diseases -

- then we can go to answer and say both yes and no - as this is subject to so many issues and factors - two inmates doing the same sentence in two identical cells might have two different outcomes

Perhaps another thing that we need to consider is to what extent mental health disorders (e.g., psychiatric  and psychological) are pre-existing condition  in inmates before they are incarcerated or even before they offend - I am currently working on a project - where we are finding a great majority of inmates having been diagnosed with  psychiatric and psychological disorders prior to incarceration

Regards

J-F

This is an incredibly complex question, and as mentioned by others will depend on how you define mental illness. Given that by DSM standards which include things like personality disorders and substance abuse as mental disorders, and the fact that almost all inmates will have at least one of these disorders (see for example Brink et al 2001),  I'll assume you're most interested in mood, psychotic and anxiety disorders.

For the core of your question: "can this situation create mental health illness in these prisoners - illness that would not otherwise evidence itself if the inmates were still free men on the street?", I would note that you need to clearly define what you include in illness that would not evidence itself as free men on the street. Pre-existing illness may not be detected on the street for many inmates, given that marginalized populations (e.g. low income, education, etc - again, all common characteristics among inmates) are less likely to access health care services and thus be diagnosed. In Canadian prisons all inmates are screened for mental illness upon admission, so there might be a number of inmates who had undiagnosed mental illness that was only detected as a result of incarceration (or at least detected sooner)

There's a recent report by O'Keefe and colleagues in Colorado, which shows that symptoms of mental health decrease over a one year period among inmates - for inmates in general populations and solitary confinement that might be of interest. Below I've pasted the link to the full report that is freely available and the peer reviewed manuscript. 

As others have said, it is likely that prisons can cause deteriorating mental health, and these ideas go back to authors like Sykes and the idea of the pains of incarceration and the fact that things like loss of privacy, social supports, etc. are detrimental to an inmates health. The ideas make sense, and are consistent with literature in the community about risk factors for mental illness, but there's very little evidence that supports the impact of prisons on mental health as it's a highly understudied topic. 

Hopefully these ideas and the references are helpful. Very interesting question, and one which I'm starting to explore with a long-term follow-up of inmates over the coming years. 

http://solitarywatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/adseg-report-final1.pdf

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23503176

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11521413

Also wanted to add - create - hopefully does not imply causality.

As there are no casual connections (being disease - as in a medical pathological concept) that incarceration creates or causes mental disease - or is there?

Yes in the above mentioned studies - incarceration can lead to or is associated with and/or correlated with  anxiety, isolation, depression, trauma....ect - but to what extent incarceration alone leads to any of the above ...... should be closely examined - in this caution must be exercised with regard to create as being read in terms of CAUSE

Clearly we all accept that under most circumstances prison and jail is not a solution for the mentally ill.  According to Dr. Richard Lamb (1998) the mentally ill are typically caught in a revolving door between the street, prison, and institutionalization.  He also opines that Supermax prisons can be "devastating" to mentally ill inmates, and can create various forms of anti-social behavior in inmates who were not diagnosed as being mentally ill.

When reading the literature it one cannot avoid forming strong opinions about why those persons with mental illness are in prison and not in an institutional setting that can treat their disease.  Here's my take on it:  Use of illicit substance (i.e. drugs) can mask mental issues, and a large percentage of inmates in the system are drug abusers; state spending for institutional care falls far below that which is needed; the development of psychotropic drugs during the 50's and 60's coupled with excessive civil litigation against hospital abuse resulted in the prisons as a great dumping grounds. Wickham (1999) points out that keeping mentally ill people in prison is expensive - a prison bed costs twice as much as a community mental health treatment program bed.

So the complication of what appears to be a simple problem grows still.

Lamb, R.H. & Weinberger, L.E. (1998, April). Persons with severe mental illness in jails and prisons: A review. Psychiatric Services, 49(4).

Wickham, D. S. (1999, October 31). Society criminalizes their mental illness. The Orlando Sentinel.

Mental Disease--if this implies diagnosable disorders/psychiatric illness, it is plausible for incarnation to add to or create a disorder. Without contemplating specifics of mood disorders, one could theorize that being kept from everyday freedoms--alone could contribute to a depressed mood, or  produce anxiety that may have lied dormant. However, with many disorders they are dormant waiting to be triggered. So does this actually "cause" a disorder/illness? or contribute to more overt syndromes as they relate to...

Also I am certain there is a prevalence of PSTD while incarnated as it relates to a) being convicted and incarnated, b) witnessing violence/death,the threat of, or an actual crime of rape on the prisoners.

These are merely a handful of ideas that come to mind when considering this question.

When arguing or wanting to position the concept of mental health (i.e. illness or psychological/psychiatric disorder) within in a correctional context - caution must be exercised. In other words, we must look at how many people in a given community be it local, state, county, province ...etc and say for example say 100 live in that community. The next question should be out of these 100 in the community - what percentage of these 100 have many have mental health (i.e. illness or psychological/psychiatric disorder) and for example say 15 people have mental health problems/concerns/illness- and then we must go to explore how many of the 15 end up in prison due to metal health (i.e. illness or psychological/psychiatric disorder) leading to an offence - given this I think I disagree with Mike - as we cannot simply say - one leading (i.e. casual) to dumping ground in prison - purely because of psychotropic drugs or drug use or masking a health concern.... 

We must be very careful in talking about one leading to the other and vice versa without a logical - or that one location represents more individuals than others.

For example, outpatient hospitals- have greater number of individuals that require mental health support.

It is also accurate that individuals incarcerated have mental health concerns but this is purely because we are only measuring them - a parallel example would be going to school that caters for blind children and then concluding that something on the on lines of - everyone here is either blind or partially blind

Primarily - individuals are in corrections because they have broken a law - so the challenge is to investigate to what extent mental health can account for variance in leading up to or associated with offending - then of those identified with mental health concerns - what are corrections doing in both treating and supporting them and - does this support then translate to and to what extent can lead to reduce recidivism  or community support in post-release.

We will always have individuals in all institutions with   mental health concerns - the problem is what environments are detrimental to and work against the well being of the individual.

Dr  J-F

I concur with your answer as it is read just above this response.

Dear Dr Donna Demond,

Thank you for your comments - as mentioned boave - it is very important to work through a clear framework and have logical steps in working towards an operational concept and workable method - which is robust and valid

Here is a link to a great article. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/04/30/the-meteoric-costly-and-unprecedented-rise-of-incarceration-in-america/

Thanks for the link - was going to put this myself - and I totally agree that policy, legislation, politics and economic agendas - can totally account for increase for incarceration reates - for example a single change in (i.e. few words) of an existing law in NZ  increased the number of individuals incarcerated for that particular Index Offence