Why Mental Health Care Is Key to Breaking New Jersey’s Reincarceration Cycle

Calvin Bass spent 38 years in prison for a crime he committed at the age of 14. To survive, he said, he created an “alternate personality,” becoming “numb” and “disconnected with human life.”

Now an outreach coordinator for New Jersey Reentry Corporation, Bass is among the 90% incarcerated people who have grappled with the trauma of being in prison. In the midst of their struggles, advocates say that New Jersey still falls short in providing the mental health treatment needed to make those second chances successful.

Incarcerated people are more likely to have experienced abuse and trauma in their lives than those outside of prison. According to the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, 0.1-27% of males and 12-38% of females in prison have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The PTSD rates in the general population are reported to be 3-8%.

Research has shown the success of New Jersey’s reentry programs, as they have helped formerly incarcerated people obtain necessities such as housing, health care, and employment. Between 2014 and 2022, New Jersey Reentry Corporation found that its participants experienced a 14% reincarceration rate, below statewide and nationwide rates.

However, Jim McGreevy, former governor and the corporation’s executive director, said in an interview that the State must provide even more access to significant mental health treatment to resolve this issue.

“If we’re in the business of helping people to return more fully to society, we have to give them the tools to work with,” added McGreevey. “And that’s where mental health, psychiatric interventions, is so critically important.”

The Prison Policy Initiative found that incarcerated individuals can hear or see extreme and traumatic violence while in prison. Some of these individuals even claim to feel safer in private areas. 

Though courts require prisons to provide access to sufficient mental health care, the National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI) found that only three in five prisoners with a history of mental illness received treatment while in state and federal prisons.

However, trauma can occur long before incarceration. A study by the International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology found that 62-98% of incarcerated young men experienced at least one traumatic event before imprisonment, with 48% affected by PTSD. 

The Council of Criminal Justice said that for  system-involved women these histories are more pervasive. Incarerated women are more likely to report significantly higher rates of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse than men.

PTSD rates are especially high amongst military veterans. Those who have PTSD are about 60% more likely to become involved with the criminal justice system than those without, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

“Across the country… our justice system increasingly encounters individuals who are not simply offenders, but people carrying profound psychological and injury shaped by violence, addiction, childhood adversity, [and] military travel,” said Larry Lustberg, Esq., a New Jersey attorney, at the New Jersey Reentry Corporation’s annual conference on April 2.

Trauma has been especially present in the lives of people residing in urban communities, where violence, poverty, abuse, and high stress are common. A 2009 study by General Hospital Psychiatry found that PTSD has been prevalent in the lives of 46.2% of urban residents.

Lt. Governor Dr. Dale Caldwell (D) even coined the term “Urban Traumatic Stress Disorder” (UTSD) to describe the experience of living such environments.

Even after an individual leaves prison, they can carry trauma from being in such a violent, stressful, and isolating environment, research shows. If left untreated, this trauma can lead to anxiety, depression, self-harm, and substance abuse. It can increase the risk of relapsing into criminal behavior, potentially putting them back behind bars.

“Psychiatric research tells us that trauma not only affects emotions… it alters the brain,” said Lustberg. “It shapes perception, impulse control, emotional regulation, and decision making. In many cases, trauma influences behavior. But our justice institutions were designed mainly to deal with that, but for purposes of adjudication and punishment, not psychological healing.”

Though the State has become more aware of mental health and its impact on its prison population, advocates have shown that greater care and support can help individuals recover, reenter society, and avoid perpetuating the cycle of trauma and crime.

“Prison is a tough place. It’s [a] survivor mentality. It’s fight or flight. And so if people begin to think that is the only way to think, that they’re gonna find themselves in very dire situations,” McGreevey said in a statement.