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.