Mental Health and Deaths in Prison: Interim Report Contents
6Other issues
22.During the five oral evidence sessions held as part of the inquiry and from the written evidence received, a number of further themes emerged:
- The increased provision of Liaison and Diversion services12 is positive but questions remain about whether these are being rolled out quickly enough and whether community mental health provision is adequate to support individuals with mental health conditions.
- Too often people who are acutely mentally unwell, such as Dean Saunders, are inappropriately being sent to prison as a ‘place of safety’; there is an urgent need to resource and make better use of community alternatives to prison for offenders with mental health conditions, particularly those who are currently given short sentences (in this category women receive shorter average sentences than men for the same offences).
- Prisoners serving IPP (imprisonment for public protection) sentences are at particularly high risk of mental ill health.
- Training for prison officers has been reduced and leaves many ill-equipped to identify and address mental health problems among prisoners. This is a serious issue which needs to be tackled.
- The Government has made proposals for greater autonomy for prison governors and measures to hold them more accountable for prisoner safety. We believe that strong leadership is vital to recognising mental health issues and reducing the number of self-inflicted deaths in prison custody.
- Equivalence of care: there is huge variation in the availability of mental health services in prisons, which do not reflect those expected in community settings, with some prisons having little or no provision of vital services such as clinical psychology.
- The proliferation of New Psychoactive Substances has had a marked effect on prison safety and the mental health of prisoners.
- Prisoners with mental health problems need continuity of care and access to safe housing on release from prison: the prospect that these will not be available increases the risk of self-harm and self-inflicted death at the end of their sentence as well as reoffending.
- Finally, the lack of an independent oversight mechanism to oversee the implementation of recommendations made following a self-inflicted death in prison means that currently lessons are not learnt and opportunities to save lives in the future are not taken.
12 The establishment of Liaison and Diversion (L&D) services was a key recommendation of the Bradley Report. These services identify, assess and refer people who have mental health problems and learning disabilities when they come into contact with the police and courts. They assess the person’s needs, advise on their case management and ensure that those in need receive the treatment and support they require.
29 April 2017