Mentally ill offenders ‘should not be treated in prisons’

THE Government watchdog tasked with improving psychiatric services has called for legislation to end treatment of mentally ill offenders in prisons.

The Mental Health Commission, responding to proposals in the Criminal Law (Insanity) Bill 2002, warned that ongoing use of prisons as treatment centres is in contravention of the UN Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental Illness.

It has called for a network of regional psychiatric intensive care units for the detention of patients committed under the Bill or for those presenting with severe and persistent aggressive and disturbed behaviours.