Mass Probation: Effects of Sentencing Severity on Mental Health for Black and White Individuals

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Citation

LeMasters, Katherine; Ross, Rachael; Edwards, Jesse K.; Lee, Hedwig E.; Robinson, Whitney R.; Brinkley-Rubinstein, Lauren; Delamater, Paul; & Pence, Brian W. (2024). Mass Probation: Effects of Sentencing Severity on Mental Health for Black and White Individuals. Epidemiology, 35(1), 74-83. PMCID: PMC10683971

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Incarceration is associated with negative impacts on mental health. Probation, a form of community supervision, has been lauded as an alternative. However, the effect of probation versus incarceration on mental health is unclear. Our objective was to estimate the impact on mental health of reducing sentencing severity at individuals’ first adult criminal–legal encounter.
METHODS: We used the US National Longitudinal Survey on Youth 1997, a nationally representative dataset of youth followed into their mid-thirties. Restricting to those with an adult encounter (arrest, charge alone or no sentence, probation, incarceration), we used parametric g-computation to estimate the difference in mental health at age 30 (Mental Health Inventory-5) if (1) everyone who received incarceration for their first encounter had received probation and (2) everyone who received probation had received no sentence.
RESULTS: Among 1835 individuals with adult encounters, 19% were non-Hispanic Black and 65% were non-Hispanic White. Median age at first encounter was 20. Under hypothetical interventions to reduce sentencing, we did not see better mental health overall (Intervention 1, incarceration to probation: RD =

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/EDE.0000000000001678

Reference Type

Journal Article

Year Published

2024

Journal Title

Epidemiology

Author(s)

LeMasters, Katherine
Ross, Rachael
Edwards, Jesse K.
Lee, Hedwig E.
Robinson, Whitney R.
Brinkley-Rubinstein, Lauren
Delamater, Paul
Pence, Brian W.

Article Type

Regular

PMCID

PMC10683971

Data Set/Study

U.S. National Longitudinal Survey on Youth

Continent/Country

United States

State

Nonspecific

Race/Ethnicity

White
Black

ORCiD

LeMasters - 0000-0002-1754-1730
Edwards, J -0000-0002-1741-335X
Robinson, W - 0000-0003-4009-0488