PRISON AND THE MENTALLY ILL
Every year, thousands of mentally ill and drug-dependent people are incarcerated without the possibility of proper treatment.
 |
 |
|
|
Too many who end up in jail are inadequate rather than inherently bad, people who are illiterate, mentally ill or addicted to drink and drugs. Daily Mail Comment
|
||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
When John's parents died he drifted into alcoholism. He lost his job on the railways and started living rough. In 1991 he was sentenced to life imprisonment after starting a series of fires. John never did speak much, but now he says virtually nothing. He may be suffering from Alzheimer's or he may have dementia induced by his years of alcoholism. Whatever the case, he does not know where he is, he can no longer walk properly and he is incontinent. Recently he set his hair on fire while trying to light a cigarette. Now he lives in the prison hospital. He is 71. |
||
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
Research shows that as many as nine out of ten prisoners have a diagnosable mental disorder, or substance misuse or both so there is a huge level of need. Mental health problems contribute to offending, re-offending and the high levels of social exclusion we see among prisoners.
Beverley Hughes MP,
Home Office Minister
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
In 1997 we estimated that a third of prison inpatients ought to be in secure NHS accommodation. This year in three local prisons, we found that proportion was 41%. Anne Owers, |
||
|
|
Ironically, Cheryl wanted to go to prison.
She believed that if she went to prison she would get the treatment she needed for her psychiatric problems and her addiction to anti-depressants. She was wrong. The judge who sentenced her to nine months in prison, did so with the 'hope that the authorities can find you appropriate help', but less than 3 months after her admission she was found hanging in her cell. She was only 20 years old.
Prison is no place for the mentally ill. In the harsh, high-stress environment, their problems can only get worse. Yet many offenders enter prison either mentally ill, or with a history of mental illness.
So why are these people in prison? Partly this has been due to a hardening of attitudes towards crimes committed by the mentally disordered - particularly in the wake of several high-profile attacks by seriously ill people. However, these are the exceptions. Only a small proportion of mentally ill prisoners have been charged with violent crimes. A study of mentally disordered remand prisoners carried out for the Home Office revealed that most had been convicted of minor crimes such as theft, public nuisance and criminal damage.
Defendants who are suspected of being mentally ill are often remanded in custody for psychiatric reports. Adults go to local prisons where facilities are limited and conditions poor. Not only do they have to cope with the shock of entering prison, they also face the stress of not knowing what will happen to them. Many are experiencing prison for the first time and know little about the system.
The quality of health care in prisons is widely agreed to be poor. Recently the Director General of the Prison Service described the quality of many prison healthcare centres as 'worse than the kennels I leave my dog in when I go on holiday.' Most prison doctors have no psychiatric qualifications, and no recognised training in the assessment and treatment of mentally disordered offenders or addicts. A shortage of beds in psychiatric hospitals and poor co-operation between the prison and local psychiatric services can mean that seriously disturbed prisoners are left in the hands of under-qualified prison health care staff. To its credit, the government has recognised the problem, and has started to implement a raft of new measures, including 300 extra staff, access to comprehensive mental health services for up to 5,000 prisoners and the promise that 'no prisoner with serious mental illness will leave prison without a care plan and a care co-ordinator.' They are also piloting new multi-disciplinary teams who provide services direct to prisoners in the same way as Community Mental Health Teams do in the wider community. And a five year process is underway which will see prison health become part of the NHS.
Billy is a young inmate who is in prison for a string of minor offences. To say that he finds prison hard to cope with is an understatement; he has developed a habit of opening a wound in his stomach and filling it with cutlery, food and excrement. Not surprisingly, he has suffered from infection and septicemia. Billy is now being successfully treated at a special unit in his prison, but worries remain about what care he will receive - if any - on his release.
Suicide and self-harmSince 1996, some 550 prisoners in England and Wales have committed suicide. In 2002 there were 94 self-inflicted deaths. In addition, there are very many more instances of prisoners hanging or strangling themselves that have not resulted in death.
 |
|
 |
Download
this page as...
