Transinstitutionalisation
Transinstitutionalisation is the phenomenon where inmates released from one therapeutic community move into other institutions, either as planned move or as an unforeseen consequence.[1] For instance, when the residential mental hospitals in the United States were closed as the result of a political policy change, the prison population increased by an equivalent number.[2]
In the United States patients that would have formerly have been in psychiatric hospitals wound up in general hospitals and private nursing homes which then became a growth industry.
There is an over-representation of the mentally ill in corrective settings. There are 400,000 prison inmates[where?] with mental health problems, and 25–40% of the mentally ill[clarification needed] will spend some time in prison.[2]