Mental Illness in Prison

Mental Illness in Prison

Prison population has increased by over 50% since the Richmond Report on deinstitutionalisation (Australian Bureau of Statistics) with 74% of prisoners in NSW suffering from a psychiatric disorder (Corrections Health Service). This has caused great concerns with mental illness in the criminal justice system. Mental institutions were 'warehouses' for the mentally ill and failed to meet basic human rights requirements and treatment. Yet as a result of institutions closing, more mentally ill people began filling the prison system. Something needs to be done about mental illness in prisons and there can be two possible solutions. (Beer, 2004)

Firstly, mentally ill people who have committed crimes are still criminals therefore treatment that is required can be fulfilled while in prison. Also, prison staff is uneducated in areas of mental health and illness, so staff should be well equipped and educated to deal with such people and adequate diagnosis must be given and early rather than later. Treatment in prison can be described through many of the perspectives. The second option is to never allow mentally ill people to be in prison, through proper diagnosis and treatment which can be described through many of the perspectives in specialised care and rehabilitation.

Mental illness amongst the prison population continues to be associated with the incidence of self-harm, deaths by suicide, the failure to provide adequate treatment to prisoners, and with re-offending. Specifically, the 1999 study, when compared with the community, found the following lifetime prevalence of mental disorder amongst prisoners:

* All figures in these columns have been rounded and drawn from the 'life-time prevalence' tables in 'The National Study of Psychiatric Morbidity in New Zealand Prisons', Department of Corrections, (1999). # The figures in this column are rounded from J.E. Wells et.al. 'Christchurch Psychiatric Epidemiology Study, Part 1: Methodology and Lifetime Prevalence for Specific Psychiatric Disorders', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 1989; 23: p.320.

The study also found that 29% of women, 11% of men on remand, and 8% of sentenced men were receiving medication for mental health problems.

On the basis of self-reporting during interviews, of the total sample, 62% of women, 77% of men on remand, and 70% of sentenced men reported receiving no treatment for their mental health problems while in prison(Cresswell, 2005).

20.5% of the sample reported frequent suicidal thoughts, while 4.5% held plans for self-harm and 2.6% had already undertaken some act of self-harm in prison.

It is estimated on the basis of the 1999 study, that in order to deliver adequate treatment, some 220 mentally ill prisoners require transfer out of the prison system into the forensic psychiatric units. These persons are additional to those being treated in the 165 forensic psychiatry hospital places available. (Dviskin, 2004)

Since 1995, the prison muster in Canterbury alone has doubled from 600 to 1200 prisoners. It can be assumed that the demand for forensic psychiatric services has also doubled. As it stands, prisons have become the institutions of last resort.

As mental institutions closed patients were left to ...