The Persistent Impact of Childhood Trauma: Current Mental Health Challenges Faced by Women in Jail

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to understand the relationship between childhood trauma and current mental health status of 110 women incarcerated in a Midwestern jail. The K6 distress scale was used to assess current mental health status. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) scale was utilized to measure traumatic events occurring in childhood. The percentage of women identified as having serious psychological distress exceeded rates found in the extant literature involving criminal justice-involved women. Women reporting more ACEs scored significantly higher on the K6. Additionally, women with higher K6 scores forecast a greater likelihood of arrest post-release, were older, had been in jail fewer times, were in jail for a longer time when interviewed, and were more likely to be mothers of minor children. These findings support the need for gender-responsive treatment and trauma-informed care to address mental health challenges among women in jail.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• jails
• substance abuse
• treatment
• victimization

Acknowledgments

We want to thank the leadership and staff of the Milwaukee County House of Correction for their support and willingness to join with us to understand the challenges of incarcerated women. We want to thank our community partner, The Benedict Center, which provides a wide array of services to women involved in the criminal justice system. Finally, we are profoundly grateful to the women at the Milwaukee County House of Correction who were willing to speak with us and share their stories.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. During the entire study, only nine women refused participation. No further demographic, criminal history, or current offense information was collected from them after their refusal. Of those who did not participate, detailed information about the nature of their community supervision violations was not collected.

2. Only 3.64% of the 110 incarcerated women had missing data for any of the independent variables. The variable for number of days in jail has three (2.7%) cases with missing data, while the variable for the number of jail incarcerations has one case (0.9%) with missing values. Thus, missing data is minimal, and the inclusion of a missing data dummy variable is appropriate.

3. In this setting universal mental health screening was not provided to all women, only those for whom it was suspected they had a “mental health problem.”

4. Physical health problems assessed included asthma, other breathing or lung problems, cancer, diabetes or thyroid condition, heart problems, chest pains or stroke, hepatitis, high blood pressure, HIV/AIDS, STD (Sexually Transmitted Disease), Tuberculosis, any chronic illness or condition, and other.

5. The top physical health problems identified were asthma (23.6%), high blood pressure (20.0%), diabetes or thyroid condition (12.7%), heart problems, chest pains or stroke (11.8%), and STDs (10.9%).

6. The household dysfunction items are the final five listed in Table 2 beginning with having parents ever separated or divorced and ending with having a household member go to prison.

7. The regression results are similar if mean substitution is not utilized, with the exception that age becomes non-significant (using p <.05).

8. There are several significant correlations between the AUDIT-ID score and other independent variables in the model including with physical health problems, age, White, non-Hispanic, number of times in jail, and the perceived likelihood of re-arrest. Additionally, the measure for physical health problems is significantly correlated with the number of ACEs, age, and income.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Social Compact Grant Program.