‘Difficulty’ over Central Mental Hospital beds for prisoners

THERE are continuing problems in transferring psychiatrically ill prisoners to the Central Mental Hospital (CMH), according to the Irish Prison Service (IPS).

An IPS spokesman said they could not comment on the case highlighted by the Inspector of Prisons, Judge Michael Reilly, and reported in yesterday’s Irish Examiner. The inspector revealed details of an inmate who was crawling on all fours in a cell, naked and covered in his own excrement. He was incoherent and had been in this condition for six days.

He had not been transferred to the CMH because no beds were available.

After the inspector’s intervention, he was transferred.

“The principle of medical confidentiality prohibits the Irish Prison Service from discussing medical information concerning individual prisoners,” said the IPS spokesman.

He said the case did highlight a general and ongoing issue regarding prisoners with psychiatric conditions getting access to the CMH.

“There continues to be difficulty in accessing admission beds for prisoners who have been clinically determined as requiring an admission to the CMH,” he said. “However, it should be noted that the CMH opened an additional 10 beds in January 2009 which must be acknowledged as being of significant benefit to the IPS over the last two years.”

He said the Criminal Law Insanity Act, which recently came into force, allowed for the Mental Health Review Tribunal to conditionally discharge patients currently placed in the CMH to community settings.

“It is envisaged this legislation may potentially significantly improve access to beds in the CMH,” he said.

The spokesman said IPS director general Brian Purcell had “communicated directly” with the HSE chief executive on the issue of psychiatrically ill prisoners.

He added that the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture recommended the Irish authorities take the necessary steps to enhance the availability of beds in the CMH for inmates. “In the context of this recommendation, and this is a matter for the HSE, a request was issued to the HSE to examine how this matter might be advanced.

“Discussions with the HSE on further enhancing the collaborative working relations between IPS healthcare staff and HSE Mental Health Services are ongoing in this regard.”

The Irish Penal Reform Trust said the details given by the inspector of the prisoner’s treatment were “particularly shocking” and added: “This issue is the subject of an ongoing legal challenge by IPRT to the treatment of mentally ill prisoners which dates back more than a decade.”