This multi-jail study examines the behavioral health needs and service use in a sample of 3,787 individuals in jail, to compare women in rural jails to their gender and geography counterparts (that is rural men, urban women, and urban men). Compared to urban women (17.9%, n = 677), rural men (18.2%, n = 690), and urban men (56.1%; n = 2,132), rural women (7.6%, n = 288) had significantly higher odds of serious mental illness and co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. Rural woman were nearly 30 times more likely to receive jail-based mental health services; however, a discrepancy between screened mental health need (43.1%, n = 124) and jail-identified mental health need (8.4%, n = 24) shows rural women are severely under-identified compared to their gender/geography counterparts. These findings have implications for the changing nature of jail populations and suggests the need to improve behavioral health identification methods.

这项涉及多个监狱的研究调查了 3,787 名入狱人员的行为健康需求和服务使用情况，将农村监狱中的女性与其性别和地理同行（即农村男性、城市女性和城市男性）进行了比较。与城市女性 (17.9%, n = 677)、农村男性 (18.2%, n = 690) 和城市男性 (56.1%; n = 2,132) 相比，农村女性 (7.6%, n = 288) 的几率明显更高严重的精神疾病和同时发生的精神健康和物质使用障碍。农村妇女接受监狱心理健康服务的可能性要高出近 30 倍；然而，筛选出的心理健康需求（43.1%，n = 124）和监狱确定的心理健康需求（8.4%，n= 24) 表明与性别/地理同行相比，农村妇女的身份认同严重不足。这些发现对监狱人口不断变化的性质有影响，并表明需要改进行为健康识别方法。