Give courts power on mentally ill, says Lonergan

MOUNTJOY prison governor John Lonergan has called for the introduction of schemes that would allow the courts to divert mentally ill accused people to hospital instead of prison.

Courts do not have the right to divert people to hospital, but can recommend they be sent for hospital treatment.

In the case of those arriving at Mountjoy and recommended by judges to be sent to hospital, Mr Lonergan said his prison depended on the facilities of the Central Mental Hospital (CMH).

“If they’re (CMH) full at the time, then nothing can be done about it,” he told Irish Medical News.

“No person should be sent to prison inappropriately,” he said.

For individuals presenting with a psychiatric illness, he said: “We should provide psychiatric treatment for them and not criminalise them.”

A quarter of all prisoners in the Dublin prison have been an inpatient in a psychiatric institution - and 40% have had contact at some stage with psychiatric services.

An Irish Prison Service spokesperson said there were difficulties in finding accommodation in psychiatric units for inmates.

They had been working with the CMH to increase the numbers of inmates that could be accommodated.

“We have psychiatrists who come into the prison and work with prisoners,” the spokesperson said.

Mr Lonergan highlighted the lack of adequate resources to respond to children with significant problems.

Children with learning difficulties found themselves ostracised in mainstream education, he said.

Mr Lonergan warned that children as young as 15, who are too disruptive in a children’s detention centre, can be certified to be of such unruly character that they can be sent to an adult prison.

According to Mr Lonergan, this is seen “regularly” in the women’s prison and was a “totally inappropriate” way to deal with children with difficulties.

Earlier this month, legal history was made when the High Court gave the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) the right to take court action against the State on behalf of mentally ill prisoners.

The IPRT is seeking a declaration from the courts that the detention of mentally ill prisoners in padded cells breaches their constitutional rights.

The court granted two former Mountjoy inmates the right to sue the State for damages.