Why prison is no place for the mentally ill

Earlier this year, Mental Health Reform released a report which found that men in prison face significant barriers to accessing mental health care and called for increased funding to support people in prison experiencing mental health difficulties and addiction issues

There are people in prison who should instead be receiving medical treatment, says lawyer Joseph Cuddigan. File picture: Dan Linehan

He stares unflinchingly into the screen from the prison he is currently in. His image is beamed into the North Cork courtroom as a judge, gardaí, and a solicitor talk about his case.

His face and eyes are blank of any emotion, even as the judge raises concerns about the length of time he has been in custody for three offences under public order legislation, alleged to have occurred almost two years earlier in a Cork town.