Post-Traumatic Prison Disorder Could Impact Millions. Congress Wants to Learn More.
Federal lawmakers are asking the National Institute of Mental Health to research the condition—also known as post-incarceration syndrome—and share its findings with lawmakers.
Members of Congress are calling on the leading federal mental health research agency to study post-traumatic prison disorder, a condition potentially impacting millions of people who have been incarcerated.
On Thursday, Democratic Reps. Ayanna Pressley and Grace F. Napolitano sent a letter to National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) director Joshua A. Gordon, requesting that the institute “research post-traumatic prison disorder and share findings related to prevention and treatment.”
“Carceral environments are inherently damaging to people’s mental health and can lead to long-term harms that persists even after release,” the lawmakers wrote. “The effects can range from anxiety to depression to suicidality. And when left untreated, individuals may develop unhealthy coping mechanisms, including substance use disorder. Much more research is needed.”
While post-traumatic prison disorder shares some similarities with post-traumatic stress disorder, it is a distinct condition, Pressley and Napolitano wrote in their letter.
Post-traumatic prison disorder is not widely-known nor listed in the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, which providers use to diagnose patients. However, the trauma of incarceration and its effects on millions of people in the U.S. who have experienced it have been well-established. Incarcerated people are separated from their loved ones, subjected to arbitrary and violent attacks, and tossed in cells for days, years, or decades. These traumas can have short-term and long-term consequences for a person’s mental health.
Specific practices such as solitary confinement, in which a person is confined in a cell for 22 or more hours a day, have been shown to have particularly devastating effects. A study of North Carolina prisoners found that people who had been placed in solitary confinement were almost 80 percent more likely to die by suicide within a year after their release than people who had not. People in solitary confinement can develop a disorder with the “characteristics of an Acute Organic Brain Syndrome,” according to Stuart Grassian, a psychiatrist who has been retained as an expert in numerous lawsuits challenging the use of solitary confinement.
With more than 600,000 people released from federal and state prisons each year, research into post-traumatic prison disorder would help governments and community organizations effectively address the needs of and provide support for those returning home, Pressley and Napolitano wrote. The racially disproportionate impact of mass incarceration leaves Black and brown communities “disproportionately vulnerable to PTPD,” Pressley said in a statement to The Appeal. Pressley’s husband, Conan Harris, was incarcerated for 10 years, and both he and the congresswoman have spoken publicly about the effects of his imprisonment and the importance of re-entry reform.
Shawanna Vaughn, who is formerly incarcerated and the founder of the advocacy group Silent Cry, has spearheaded efforts at the state level to address the disorder. In New York, lawmakers have introduced legislation named after Vaughn that would provide mental health services, family counseling, and other services to formerly incarcerated people with post-traumatic prison disorder. The bill has not yet made it out of committee for a floor vote.
Despite the potentially widespread prevalence of the disorder, psychiatrists have conducted very little research into its characteristics. NIMH has not publicly posted any research into post-traumatic prison disorder or post-incarceration syndrome, according to a search of the institute’s website.
To help people with the disorder, we must first understand more about it, Pressley told The Appeal.
“That which gets measured gets done, and research into PTPD is a critical step that would help inform responsive policies that support formerly incarcerated people as they reconnect with their families and communities,” Pressley said in a statement.