Prison is no cure for the mentally ill
AS I can personally testify there are people in Her Majesty's prisons who have genuine mental health problems and who, both for their own sake and ours, should instead be receiving treatment.
Now campaigners are claiming that about 39 per cent of all offenders on community sentences are suffering from mental problems.
Somehow I doubt if that figure would still be true if one excluded the drug and alcohol-dependent.
I think there can be little argument against the contention that too often the mentally ill end up in the penal rather than the health system.
I think there can be little argument against the contention that too often the mentally ill end up in the penal rather than the health system.
This is largely because it is easier to dispose of cases that way and because the money and manpower to provide the correct alternative are simply not there, while the sufferers themselves often have no idea what is wrong.
Spending money on those who have broken the law may not be the most popular of measures but getting treatment right is in all our interests because the alternative means more crime and more victims.