Mentally ill people in prisons

doi:10.1136/bmj.321.7258.448/b

BMJ 2000;321:448 ( 12 August )

Letters

Mentally ill people in prisons

Prison service policy on seclusion has changed

Little has changed

Prison service policy on seclusion has changed

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ On 30 March 2000 the prison service issued instruction 27/2000, which announced the immediate elimination of the useof strip cells in the management of prisoners identified as beingat risk of suicide or self injury. This long overdue decisionon policy may be heavily influenced by the Human Rights Act 1998.Interestingly, the prison service cramps governors' budgets bystating that alterations to create a safer cell have to be metfrom existing capitalresources.

I agree with Reed and Lyne's proposal that the care of mentally ill offenders should be provided within the NHS.¹ We inthe prison service can never provide inpatient care to NHS standards.We do not have the funds to do so even though we are measuredby those same standards. Furthermore, we do not have 24 hour accessto our inpatients, even when it is described as a 24 hour service.Every prison has patrol . . . [Full text of this article]

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Relevant Article

Inpatient care of mentally ill people in prison: results of a year's programme of semistructured inspections: John L Reed and Maggi Lyne
BMJ 2000 320: 1031-1034. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]