The study, by the research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, confirms what wardens, convicts and correctional officers already know -- that large numbers of inmates routinely display symptoms of depression, mania or psychotic disorders.

Based on a representative survey of more than 25,000 prisoners nationwide, the report found that mental health problems were associated with an inmate's violence and prior convictions. Those state prisoners with mental problems were more likely to have at least three prior incarcerations and to have broken prison rules.

Mentally ill inmates also were twice as likely as other convicts to have been injured in a prison fight and substantially more likely to have been abused as a child and homeless in the year before their arrest. Three out of four were dependent on drugs and alcohol, with 37 percent saying they used drugs at the time of their crime.

Mental health experts called the study disturbing. They said it illustrates a direct relationship between gaps in community mental health care and the large numbers of mentally ill people winding up in the criminal justice system.

"If one out of three people incarcerated in this country are receiving mental health treatment, it shows that there is something very wrong with the way services are delivered in the community," said Bill Emmet of the Washington-based Campaign for Mental Health Reform, a coalition of advocacy groups. "People need services before they do something that might result in their incarceration."

The study also found:

* Female inmates had higher rates of mental illness than males -- with 73 percent of females in state prisons reporting symptoms, compared with 55 percent of males.

* The prevalence of mental illness varied by race, with 62 percent of white inmates suffering from problems, compared with 55 percent of blacks and 46 percent of Hispanics.

* More than half of mentally ill inmates had a family member who was incarcerated.