HELP US END MASS INCARCERATION The Prison Policy Initiative uses research, advocacy, and organizing to dismantle mass incarceration. We’ve been in this movement for 23 years, thanks to individual donors like you.

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Chart showing that people arrested multiple times within 12 months were about three times as likely as those with no arrests to have a serious or moderate mental illness, to have experienced serious psychological distress in the past year, and to lack health insurance. The difference in substance use disorder was more extreme, with 52 percent of people with multiple arrests reporting a substance use disorder, compared to just 7 percent of those with no arrests.

Data Source: Compiled by the Prison Policy Initiative from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2017. (Graph: Wendy Sawyer, 2019)

This graph originally appeared in Arrest, Release, Repeat: How police and jails are misused to respond to social problems.

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