ESTIMATING THE IMPACT OF MENTAL ILLNESS ON COSTS OF CRIMES A Matched Samples Comparison

This study uses a propensity scoring and matching approach to compare the costs of crimes committed by former inmates with mental illness (MI) and without MI. Our findings indicate that the recidivism costs of those with MI over the course of 3 years of follow-up are nearly 3 times as large as similar reintegrating former inmates without MI. However, prior to match-ing on mental health indicators, the costs of the reoffense patterns of the average reintegrating individual with MI are less than half those of the average former prisoner without MI. Our discussion centers on the identification of relevant groups that corrections officials should focus their rehabilitative resources on and whether those with MI should be a group they focus on during this process. Keywords: costs of crime; reentry; reintegration; recidivism; rearrest; corrections Former inmates with mental illness (MI) receive increased attention by corrections offi-cials because they typically identify these concerns as criminal risks. Developing research about the monetary costs associated with offending patterns offer empirically sup-ported approaches to guide criminal justice resource allocations to mitigate the costs associ-ated with criminal careers and recidivism. This study uses a propensity scoring and matching approach to compare the costs of crimes committed by former inmates with and without MI. Our findings indicate that the recidivism costs of those with MI over the course of 3 years of follow-up are nearly 3 times as large as similar reintegrating former inmates without MI