Criminals getting therapy in Britain at €250k each

CONVICTED criminals are being sent to Britain for psychiatric treatment at a cost of €250,000 each because of a lack of services within the prison system.

It was recently revealed by the Central Mental Hospital that prisoners are routinely sent to Britain where no suitable services are available here. Two leading consultant psychiatrists have revealed the cost of the practice and claim offenders needing treatment are disadvantaged because of where they live.

Resources are particularly scarce in the west, according to Clare-based psychiatrists Dr John O’Mahoney and Dr Moosajee Bhamjee.

Speaking to the Clare Champion newspaper, Dr O’Mahoney, who works at the Acute Psychiatric Unit of Ennis General Hospital, said: “If you live outside the pale there is no funding or services available and it’s going to get extremely difficult.

“We have an increasing population, an increased level of abuse of drugs, so we’ll face more and more of this. We are failing to meet the needs of one of the most disadvantaged groups in our society,” he said.

He also said the majority of people with psychiatric illnesses do not end up in prisons, but referred to international figures that suggest that 5%-10% of people in jail also have psychotic illnesses.

“There is a small sub-population of people who have organic brain syndromes who perhaps are not amenable to treatment, but who need constant supervision. We don’t have the facilities for them,” he said.

Dr Bhamjee said more people with psychiatric difficulties are committing criminal offences because there is an overall increase in offending.

He said criminals suffering from psychiatric illnesses need very specialised treatment.

“A forensic psychiatrist works within the law. They look at certain acts and see how the acts relate to a person’s actions.

“There was never a forensic service in Limerick prison. It was hoped that a forensic team would be set up to treat people within the prison system. Dr Ananth Pulella in Limerick prison was assigned and it was set up so that Limerick would become a full-time post for a forensic centre, but that hasn’t materialised,” said Dr Bhamjee.

Dr Pulella, a qualified forensic psychiatrist, was the subject of a stabbing incident on January 17 at a psychiatric unit in Limerick.

In a statement, the Irish Prison Service said it was their practice “to seek to provide access to psychiatric services to prisoners within the prison”.

“Where a prisoner is considered to require inpatient treatment, arrangements are made for admission to the Central Mental Hospital for this purpose,” it said.