Category: Mental health
PRT comment: Joint inspection report on mental health in the criminal justice system
PRT comment: Justice Committee inquiry on mental health in prisons
Commenting on the findings of today’s (29 September) report on mental health in prisons by the House of Commons Justice Committee, Peter Dawson, director of the Prison Reform Trust said:
“The government should be deeply ashamed of the situation this report describes. We are sending mentally ill people to prisons where conditions are guaranteed to damage their health further. The first priority must be to provide the community options that will avoid the need for prison in all but the most serious cases. But there can be no excuse either for prison environments that are guaranteed to make ill people sicker and in which people all too frequently take their own lives.
“The government can find countless millions to build new prisons, but seems reluctant to invest with the same urgency in the services that would make that unnecessary. The result is morally as well as economically indefensible.”
Click here to read the committee’s findings.
“Devastating” impact of Covid-19 restrictions on women prisoners’ mental health
Women in prison have revealed the devastating impact of Covid-19 restrictions on their mental health and wellbeing, in a briefing launched today by the Prison Reform Trust.
Based on evidence from women in prison from May 2020 to May 2021, as well as supporting evidence from HM Inspectorate of Prisons and other sources, the briefing looks at women’s experiences of prison during the first and second waves of the pandemic.
It highlights the consequences for women of a restricted regime amounting to ‘prolonged solitary confinement’, where they were often locked up for 23 hours a day without access to work, training or rehabilitation, and were not able to receive visits from family and loved ones.
One woman said:
“Never in the six years of my sentence so far has lockdown been this severe or long…Mental health is deteriorating for me and [those] around me. Most were coping but over the past 2 to 3 weeks there is a lot of unrest. The worst cases are getting put in seg and we hear the screaming which is awful.”
Another woman said:
“Mental health is a massive issue here in prisons and there is no duty of care for it, we are simply given a colouring pack. Depression, anxiety, discomfort, boredom and comfort eating, the ladies are piling the weight on. I feel I’m in the passenger seat of an out of control car are we are about to hit a brick wall.”
The importance of family contact, especially with children, emerges as a particularly important theme in the report. At the time the evidence was gathered for the briefing, social visits were suspended, and although measures to compensate for the lack of face-to-face visits were put in place, these were unable to fully make up for the loss.
One woman said:
“Personally I feel contact with family/friends is really hard. To start with, we were only allowed 10 mins phone time a day, which has now progressed to 20 mins a day, which isn’t enough…I think everyone’s main issue is family contact and maintaining family ties. This includes family members outside. They find it upsetting and are as frustrated as us.”
A family member of a woman in prison reported:
“Video calls are 30 mins but only once a month. Her visit entitlement is almost once a week so this is a far cry from that and there has been four months without any contact.”
Some women also felt that technology for video calls was designed to give priority to security rather than enhancing ties between mothers and their young children.
One woman said:
“I have spoken to a number of the ladies who have experienced purple visits and the overall feedback was ‘brilliant’. [But…] the software is extremely sensitive and freezes quite a bit…The women and their family members find this frustrating.”
The briefing highlights areas of good practice, implemented by individual establishments, to make the situation more bearable. These include increased provision to call and write to family members, access to exercise and other activities, and kindness from staff.
As prisons emerge from pandemic restrictions, the briefing suggests what prisons should do as they restore a normal regime. These include:
- Increase the number and duration of visits, providing open air visits and physical contact; but maintain phone credits and video calls
- Provide support in the aftermath of visits that leave painful emotions
- Enable staff and prisoners to discuss how they have been affected by the pandemic and the regime
- Run wing meetings to gather the views of prisoners about what is most important to them and how to proceed
- Create or maintain peer support workers and Covid-19 wellbeing reps and support them in their roles
- Encourage officers to maintain empathy and caring in their work with prisoners
- Explore how the recovery process needs to differ for women
- Raise the level of mental health support in prison permanently.
Commenting, Peter Dawson, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said:
“As prisons emerge from Covid-19 restrictions, recovery plans must be based on evidence about how women have been affected. Recovery in prisons is going slower than in the community, and is even more fragile. It’s crucial that the measures taken to mitigate the impact on women and their families—such as additional phone credit—are not wound down, and that women in prison are involved in planning for what comes next. But this report should also cause the government to rethink its plans to expose even more women, typically convicted of non-violent crime, to the needless suffering of imprisonment.”
Click here to download a copy of the briefing.
PRT comment: CJJI report on neurodiversity in the criminal justice system
Commenting on the findings of today’s (15 July) Criminal Justice Joint Inspection report on neurodiversity in the criminal justice system, Peter Dawson, Director of the Prison Reform Trust said:
“This outstanding report shows conclusively that the criminal justice system is failing in its core duty to treat people with neuro-divergent conditions fairly, and that the number of individuals affected is startlingly high.
“The Lord Chancellor was clearly right to commission this work. But the real test is whether he will now provide the resource and the leadership required to follow through on the six crystal clear recommendations the report makes. “
PRT welcomes new guidelines for sentencing vulnerable defendants
The Prison Reform Trust welcomes the publication today by the Sentencing Council of Overarching principles: Sentencing offenders with mental disorders, developmental disorders, or neurological impairments.
A high proportion of people in contact with the criminal justice system have mental health needs, learning disability or a neurological disorder. We hope that the new guideline will provide clarity and transparency for the sentencing of these individuals and help to ensure that their specific needs are taken into account and met in the sentencing process.
In April 2019 the Sentencing Council published a 13-week consultation on a draft guideline. During this time a roundtable seminar was held by the Magistrates Association and the Prison Reform Trust to discuss the draft guideline. A written response to the draft guideline informed by the roundtable is available by clicking here.
We are pleased to see a number of points raised in our response, along with points raised by other charities and organisation, have been taken forward in the final guideline. These include improvements to the title of the guideline, greater clarity around co-morbidities with drug and / or alcohol dependence, and better information on acquired brain injury. The Sentencing Council’s response to the consultation is available by clicking here.
Women in prison: mental health and well-being—a guide for prison staff
People in prison have a disproportionately high rate of poor mental health, and research shows these rates are even higher for women in prison. While primary care remains the responsibility of healthcare professionals, frontline prison staff play an important role in protecting and addressing mental health needs of women in prison.
Penal Reform International (PRI), in partnership with the Prison Reform Trust (PRT), has published a guide for prison and probation staff to help them understand how prison life can affect a person’s mental health, with a focus on women. The guide aims to break down the stigma and discrimination attached to poor mental health, especially for women in prison.
This tool is written to help understand how life in prison can affect a person’s mental health, with a focus on women. It describes how to recognise the signs of poor mental health and how best to respond. It also includes a checklist based on international human rights standards aimed to help with the implementation of key aspects of prison reform and advocacy initiatives in line with international standards and norms.
Published with the support of Better Community Business Network (BCBN) and the Eleanor Rathbone Charitable Trust.
Other tools and resources on health, mental health and well-being for people in prison
- PRI’s Toolbox on the UN Bangkok Rules—a range of practical resources to assist in putting the UN Bangkok Rules on women prisoners into practice
- Guidance Document on the UN Nelson Mandela Rules—co-published with the OSCE ODIHR
Download a copy of Women in prison: mental health and well-being by clicking here.
PRT comment: Safety in custody statistics
Commenting on the findings of today’s (30 January) Ministry of Justice Safety in Custody statistics, Peter Dawson, director of the Prison Reform Trust said:
“We welcome the small decrease in the overall levels of assault and significant drop in serious assaults on staff. But the hidden crisis revealed in these figures is the record levels of self-harm, which continue to rise unabated. A failure to ensure decent and humane conditions, as well as respond effectively to the large proportion of people in prison with serious mental health problems, is being paid for in human misery and distress. Too many people are held in overcrowded conditions with too little to do. The government needs a plan to restore purpose and hope to our prisons. Sending more people to prison for longer will make matters worse.”
PRT comment: Safety in custody statistics
Commenting on the latest safety in custody statistics published today by the Ministry of Justice, Peter Dawson, Director of the Prison Reform Trust, said:
“The faint hope that our prison system might have turned a corner has been dashed by these numbers. Prisons are still getting more dangerous as places where people have to live and work. More people than last year chose to take their own life rather than endure it. When an individual prison hits rock bottom, the government reduces the number of prisoners it holds – but it continues to ignore the obvious truth that it is the prison system as a whole that is grossly overcrowded. Ministers talk about having recruited more staff, but the problem will only be solved by having fewer prisoners.”
The figures show:
- An increase in total assaults over the last year which rose by 11%, 4% of which was over the last quarter. The total number of assaults over the past year is the highest ever recorded
- The number of serious assaults were at their highest ever recorded rate with 1,000 incidents
- The number of assaults on staff is also up by 4% over the quarter, and 15% over the year
- The number of incidents of self-harm are also up, with the second highest ever recorded quarterly figure
- The number of deaths has decreased to 73 from 77 over the last quarter, and the annual number has also slightly decreased to 309 from 311
PRT comment: Arson and criminal damage sentencing guidelines
Commenting on today’s (3 July 2019) publication of new definitive guidelines for arson and criminal damage offences by the Sentencing Council, Mark Day, head of policy and communications at the Prison Reform Trust said:
“A significant proportion of people who commit arson have a mental health need, learning disability or autism. This guideline highlights the importance of courts obtaining a proper assessment of any underlying mental health condition or disorder before deciding the degree to which someone can be held responsible for what happened, and sets out a clear process for doing so, including full engagement with liaison and diversion services. This should lead to the fairer and more appropriate treatment of vulnerable defendants in our courts.”
Click here to read our submission to the Sentencing Council’s consultation on the draft guidelines.
