CURRENT ARRANGEMENTS FOR FUNDING ACCESS TO JUSTICE

Evaluate The Extent To Which Current Arrangements For Funding Access To Justice



Evaluate The Extent To Which Current Arrangements For Funding Access To Justice

In 2002, a government report found high levels of social exclusion and mental ill health among prisoners in England and Wales (Social Exclusion Unit 2002). The report found that many prisoners experienced a lifetime of social exclusion, and it was estimated that mental health problems affected around 70% of the prison population. As many, if not more, were found to have alcohol or drug abuse problems. The report noted that prison may cause an offender's mental and physical health to deteriorate further, that life and thinking skills will be eroded, and that prisoners will be introduced, or have a greater access to, drugs. In October 2007, HM Inspectorate of Prisons carried out its own thematic review of mental health in prisons. It concluded: “Two findings stand out starkly from this report. The first is that there are still too many gaps in provision and too much unmet and sometimes unrecognised need in prisons. The second, equally important, is that the need will always remain greater than the capacity, unless mental health and community services outside prison are improved and people are appropriately directed to them: before, instead of, and after custody.

Those are the two parallel tracks that must be followed if the initial gains are to be built on… “Unless those gaps are filled, mentally ill people will continue to fall through them, and into our overcrowded, increasingly pressurised prisons” (HMIP 2007, p. 5, 7). In addition, on 1 January 2008, the Government announced that there had been 92 selfinflicted deaths in prisons in England and Wales in 2007: an increase from 67 in 2006. The Ministry of Justice noted that: “The prison population hit an all-time high during 2007 and contains a high proportion of very vulnerable individuals. There are around 130,000 prisoners going through the prison system each year and on any one day prisons keep safe over 1,500 people assessed as at particular risk. Over 100 prisoners were resuscitated during 2007 after serious self-harm incidents. Many hundreds more have been helped by the care and timely interventions of staff” (Ministry of Justice 2008).

The Government's response to the Corston report

This section looks at the Government's response to the key recommendations of the report and the implications of the chosen approach for the mental health of women in the criminal justice system.

A distinct approach for women

Baroness Corston's report is centred on proposals for a distinct approach for women, most significantly that: “The Government should announce within six months a clear strategy to replace existing women's prisons with suitable, geographically dispersed, small, multi-functional custodial centres within 10 years.” In reply, the Government stated that it had no plans for an overhaul of this kind in this timescale, but that: “Further work will need to be undertaken to consider whether small custodial centres would be the most appropriate and effective ...