Historically, transferring prisoners to
hospital for treatment of an acute mental illness has been
problematic, with prisoners having to endure lengthy delays. As a
result of Lord Bradley’s independent review of people with mental
health problems in the criminal justice system, the government is
now exploring opportunities for improving this process and the
Department of Health is considering the introduction of a new
minimum target for the NHS of 14 days to transfer a prisoner with a
severe mental illness to an appropriate healthcare setting.
This report aims to gauge whether a national
14-day prison transfer minimum target, as recommended by Lord
Bradley, is reasonable. The College was invited to contribute to a
Department of Health review and in 2010 carried out an online
consultation with members with experience of prison transfers
(Section 47 and Section 48 of the Mental Health Act 1983). This
consultation drew on the experiences and expertise of psychiatrists
in identifying the barriers and possible solutions to timely prison
transfers and aimed to:
- Gauge whether a national 14-day transfer
target is considered reasonable.
- Identify key barriers and possible solutions
to timely prison transfers.
- Provide the Department of Health with
personal accounts from psychiatrists about their experiences in
transferring prisoners to appropriate healthcare settings.
Contents
- Executive summary
- Background
- Method
- Consultation
- Introduction
- Prison transfer pathway (Section 47 and 48 of
the Mental Health Act)
- Consultation – analysis of results
- Case studies
- References