Pew Analysis Finds Adults With Mental Illness Are Overrepresented in Probation Population

A recent analysis of federal data from 2015 to 2019 by The Pew Charitable Trusts found that adults on probation, supervision imposed by the court generally in lieu of incarceration, are more than twice as likely to have a serious or moderate mental illness as those in the general public. This results in over 830,000 adults with a mental illness who are on probation at any given time each year, or almost a quarter of all those on probation.

Other key findings from the study include:

• Individuals with a mental illness are more likely to be on probation than those without, and this disparity was even more pronounced for women and those with a co-occurring substance use disorder.

• Many individuals on probation with a mental illness have more criminal justice contacts than those on probation without a mental illness.

View more findings from this study here through The Pew Charitable Trusts.