Fig. 1

All prevalence rates are cross-sectional. There were 2090 African American men, 64.1% of which has no mental illness. Women in general exhibited the highest burden of mental illness compared to other racial groups. Quarter of the female African American inmates had three or more mental illness diagnoses. These prevalence rates were similar to white women (n = 554) of which 24.7% had three or more mental illnesses. More than half of the white men (n = 5008) had a mental illness diagnosis which is the highest number compared to rates in other racial groups. Percentage of inmates diagnosed with mental illness in Iowa by race and gender