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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 9:13 pm
Time: 9:13 pm
Results for mentally ill offenders (northern ireland)
1 results foundAuthor: O'Connell, Fiona Title: Prisoners and Mental Health Summary: This paper is a scoping paper on issues concerning prisoners with mental health problems. Section 1 sets out the structure of the paper, outlining the content of the sections. Section 2 of the paper provides statistics, highlighting the prevalence of mental illness in the criminal justice system. Section 3 of the paper sets out the legal framework governing the admission into hospital, detention and treatment of individuals subject to criminal proceedings or under sentence. The section identifies some gaps in the legislation, in particular that the legal framework does not include personality disorder within its scope. The Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland comments that this has implications for prisons who are coping with too many personality disordered offenders. Section 4 of the paper provides information on initiatives, services and policy developments in relation to mental health and prisons. The section highlights that there have been a number of positive developments indicating an awareness of the links between mental health and offending including a diversion scheme in Musgrave Street police station, the transfer of responsibility of healthcare to the health service, policy developments on vulnerable women offenders and a consultation seeking views on community sentences. Section 5 of the paper considers research reports focusing specifically on mental health and criminal justice. The reports identify a number of issues that need to be addressed including the need for more diversion schemes, problems in information exchange between the agencies, lack of high secure facilities for the most dangerously disordered offenders, inadequate services in the community and in prisons, the need for a therapeutic environment for women offenders, and a lack of hostel accommodation for low risk offenders who require support in release. The section also identified resettlement problems for offenders with mental health issues. Section 6 of the paper highlights a number of initiatives for other jurisdictions. These include court diversion schemes in England and Wales and Australia, mental health courts in the United States and a prison in-reach and court liaison scheme in the Republic of Ireland. These schemes have had positive outcomes in diverting offenders to appropriate health services and reducing offending rates. In some jurisdictions such as Canada, diversion is used for minor offences and not violent offences. The Republic of Ireland scheme targets remand prisoners. Section 7 of the paper makes concluding remarks and highlights key issues for further consideration. Details: Belfast: Northern Ireland Assembly, 2011. 34p. Source: Internet Resource: Research and Library Service Research Paper: Accessed September 1, 2012 at: http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/Documents/RaISe/Publications/2011/Justice/4611.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/Documents/RaISe/Publications/2011/Justice/4611.pdf Shelf Number: 126179 Keywords: Mental Health ServicesMentally Ill Offenders (Northern Ireland)Mentally Ill Prisoners |