The United States has had an issue with mass incarceration for quite some time now. With numbers reaching as high as almost 2.3 million incarcerated individuals, the U.S. leads with the highest incarcerations rates worldwide (Wagner & Sawyer, 2020). But the issue isn’t just mass incarceration, it’s also who the individuals are that are being incarcerated. Among those incarcerated, 37% of those in the state or federal prisons and 44% of those in local jails, have been diagnosed with some sort of mental illness (National Alliance on Mental Illness, n.d.). Therefore, as the numbers reflect, individuals suffering from mental health illnesses are vastly overrepresented in our country’s jail and prison population. And to add to this social issue, many of those individuals are denied access to the mental health resources they need while incarcerated.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 63% of incarcerated people with a history of mental illness do not receive mental health treatment while incarcerated in state or federal prisons  (National Alliance on Mental Illness, n.d.). In addition, 50% of individuals who were receiving treatment for mental illnesses prior to being incarcerated did not continue to receive treatment while incarcerated. While there are several reasons why these individuals are denied access to the mental health resources they need, lack of funding for incarcerated individuals and correctional institutions seems to be at the center of it (Reingle, 2014).