Psychiatric service - Cinderella of the health system

CONCERNS voiced by the Penal Reform Trust have focused the spotlight on Coalition spending on prison padded cells while, at the same time, shamefully neglecting the country’s psychiatric services.

Sharp questions have been raised by the Trust, which campaigns for prisoner rights and reform of the penal system, following the Justice Minister Michael McDowell’s revelations that in ten prisons over 4 million is being spent providing 33 padded cells used to hold mentally ill or troublesome prisoners for short periods.

While the new-look special observation cell may be an improvement on the traditional image, the fundamental question to be asked is whether people with mental illness should be in prison at all.

Prison officers, notably Governor John Lonergan of Mountjoy Jail, have expressed concern over the high proportion of inmates in our prisons who are mentally ill.

Indeed, a recent report found one in four of Ireland’s 3,200 prison population was homeless on committal, two-thirds had spent time in a psychiatric hospital and one-third had a mental illness.

Moreover, according to a leading judge, prisoners with psychiatric problems are among the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in society.

Mr Justice Paul Gilligan, who granted the Penal Trust the right to sue the State on behalf of two prisoners with psychiatric problems, holds the view that mentally ill prisoners were generally ignorant of their rights and likely to fear retribution if they challenged the authorities.

Significantly, the judge found that though in theory mentally ill prisoners might be capable of asserting their rights, this did not mean they were in a position to adequately assert them.

Dating back to 1945, the Mental Treatment Act is so out-dated that Ireland is in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights where the committal and detention of mentally ill people is concerned.

There is now urgent need to replace this archaic law. But while a new Act has been drafted, regrettably it has been mired in the legislative pipeline for four years.

Psychiatrists have repeatedly warned of the large proportions of homeless people and prisoners with mental illness. This is a particularly disturbing illustration of Government failure to adequately fund the vital psychiatric service.

In the controversy, grave doubts have been raised by the Penal Reform Trust over the use of padded cells to detain mentally ill or troublesome prisoners.

With 20 already completed and 13 more nearing completion, the Trust has warned against the danger of these cells being used as a form of punishment or isolation of prisoners.

That should not be countenanced.

Significantly, the cells are not confined to the country’s main prisons.

Two have been installed at St Patrick’s juvenile prison and two more at the Dochas women’s prison. Understandably, the Trust is deeply concerned over the use of such facilities in prisons where women and children are held.

Arguably, instead of padded cells, children and adolescents should be provided with educational support, especially those with learning disabilities.

The grave concerns and fears raised by the Penal Reform Trust should not be glibly dismissed by Minister McDowell as the captious cavilling of civil libertarians.

Rather, they should inform Government policy and lead to greater protection of people with mental disorders whose rights have been deplorably neglected.

Their plight should prompt the immediate reform of, and more generous investment in the psychiatric service. Because of mean-spirited funding by the State down the years, it has become the Cinderella of the health system.