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Dr. Joachim Müllner (Psychiatrist)
Medical validation:
December 19, 2022
Many ex-prisoners present at least one psychiatric disorder, whether or not related to addiction, when they leave prison, according to the first results of the Mental Health in Outgoing Prison Population study.
According to the International Prison Observatory, the rate of psychiatric pathologies is four to ten times higher in prison than in the general population. An alarming rate which does not seem to drop once the prison door is crossed, according to the first results of the Mental Health study in outgoing prison populations (SPCS), presented at the French Congress of Psychiatry in Lille.
The mortality of ex-convicts is high
According to the first results of this survey, conducted by a team from the Lille University Hospital among prisoners close to their release, nearly two-thirds of men and three-quarters of women have at least one psychiatric and/or addiction-related disorder. upon their release.
“We reiterate the finding of a very high prevalence of psychiatric disorders in prison in France“, thus admits doctor Thomas Fovet, psychiatrist and co-author of the study.
Among the main disorders detected in prisoners, the scientists noted:
The survey, which lasted nearly two years, also shows a very high prevalence of addictions.
And for good reason: even before being released, 30% of detainees show alcohol abuse or dependence and between 30 and 60% of incarcerated people regularly use narcotics before incarceration (cannabis, crack, heroin , LSD, ecstasy, glues, solvents, diverted drugs, etc.), according to the National Observatory of Prisons.
“Given that the means allocated to the management of these addictions in the prison environment is deplorable, and that the continuation of consumption of these products is for many prisoners a means of supporting incarceration, it is quite logical that these same addictions persist upon discharge. While these addictions are themselves providers of recurrences“, specifies Dr. Joachim Müllner, psychiatrist at the Hôtel Dieu in Paris.
An urgent need for care and support
While waiting to learn more about the subject, these first results offer an overview of the mental health of prisoners in France but also “a look at care and support needs“of these released people, underlines Professor Pierre Thomas, part of the team at the Lille University Hospital carried out the investigation.
According to Dr. Müllner, given the lack of resources allocated to mental health in France and in the prison environment in particular, many improvements must be (urgently) made.
“Prisons are sorely lacking in the means to ensure that people who enter prison come out changed in a positive way. If this country really wants to see a reduction in anti-social behavior one day, it is not by trying to make people suffer who are already sufficiently violent themselves that we will find the solution (it is scientifically proven that prison increases the risk of violent recidivism), but also by carrying out rigorous and scientific research on the risk factors of these behaviors as much as by giving ourselves the material and human means to take charge of them on the social as well as psychological and medical“, concludes the doctor.