NCJ Number
158209
Journal
Justice Quarterly Volume: 12 Issue: 2 Dated: (June 1995) Pages: 279-305
Date Published
1995
Length
27 pages
Annotation
This study studied the impact of 550 male inmates' psychiatric history on decisions made in the criminal justice process. The study hypothesized that a history of psychiatric hospitalization would be less significant at points where the defendant was granted more due procedural safeguards (i.e., sentencing) and more significant at points in the process where the defendant received fewer due procedural safeguards (i.e., parole).
Abstract
The results showed that inmates with prior psychiatric hospitalizations did not receive longer sentences than other convicted offenders. Multiple regression analyses showed that an offender's sentence was not associated with knowledge of his prior civil psychiatric hospitalization or any other identified extralegal variables. However, inmates who required psychiatric hospitalization during their incarceration were less likely to be released on parole. Even after controlling for legal and extralegal variables, knowledge of psychiatric hospitalization during imprisonment had the largest impact on the parole decision. These findings are consistent with an explanatory framework that examines due procedural safeguards given a defendant and considers the probability that discretion will be used in a discriminatory manner. 5 tables and 65 references