INMATE MENTAL ILLNESS ESTIMATE RISES

Officials Say About 34% Of Prisoners Have Had Psychiatric Diagnoses

Oakdale, Ia. -- More than one-third of the 8,800 inmates in Iowa's
prison system have been diagnosed as mentally ill, a much higher
figure than previously reported, state officials said Friday.

About 34 percent of all Iowa prisoners have had psychiatric
diagnoses, compared with previous estimates of 16 percent to 18
percent, said Corrections Director Gary Maynard. This means there are
almost 3,000 inmates who fit that category, he told the Iowa Board of
Corrections.

The new estimate is based on better tracking of inmates with
psychiatric diagnoses, said Dr. Bruce Sieleni, a psychiatrist and
director of mental health for the Iowa Department of Corrections. It
also represents a decision to include inmates with past psychiatric
problems who had been listed as having their mental illness
"resolved," he said.

"They are not resolved because it is not uncommon for people with
mental illness to get in trouble, to have some outbursts or something
like that. They are still in the system and we are counting them
now," Sieleni said.

The corrections board met Friday at the state prison complex at
Oakdale, which is just north of Iowa City. Maynard said his
department re-examined its approach to mental illness after four
mentally ill inmates committed suicide in a clinical care unit at the
Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison between February 2003 and
November 2004.

Many improvements in the care of mentally ill inmates have been made
since those deaths, and there have been no inmate suicides since
2004, Maynard said. His agency is constructing a new $34 million,
178-bed special needs unit at the Oakdale prison that will include
more space for inmates with mental illness and other medical problems.

About 31 percent of Iowa's male inmates are considered mentally ill,
while 60 percent of the state's female inmates have mental illness,
Sieleni said.

The psychiatrist said he doesn't know exactly why Iowa's percentage
of women prisoners with psychiatric diagnoses is so much higher than
male inmates. But medical research has shown that women are more
likely to seek mental health care than men, he said. Another factor
may be that because of a lack of community mental health care, some
women may commit crimes and be sent to prison, he added.

Depression, substance abuse disorders and anxiety/panic disorders are
the leading psychiatric diagnoses for both men and women in Iowa's prisons.