Prisons ‘closing hotel for human beings with mental health problems’
According to the Northern Ireland Audit Office, Northern Ireland’s justice machine is being used as a final resort for people with mental health problems.
A report has discovered almost -two-thirds of human beings arrested by police had intellectual fitness difficulties.
The audit workplace file additionally checked out the Northern Ireland Prison Service.
It discovered that 36% of inmates had been in touch with community intellectual fitness services when they entered prison between 2014 and 2018.
The document, Mental Health Inside the Criminal Justice System, was published during Mental Health Awareness Week.
It states that the fitness gadget has made it increasingly difficult to deal with the boom in intellectual health needs across the population.
As a result, it discovered that the justice machine is entering touch with growing numbers of people without access to the fitness and social care services they want.
The report also mentioned that the present-day pattern of quick-time period custodial sentences is ineffective in treating and rehabilitating prisoners with mental health problems.
The audit office highlighted research utilizing the probation board, which showed that forty-two % of offenders have an intellectual fitness issue, and 72% have an emotional well-being difficulty.
Auditor General Kieran Donnelly said that the justice device addresses those who had fallen between the gaps of the more comprehensive public carrier.
He stated: “While the justice system is pursuing more than a few reform measures to meet this task, the evidence to date shows that greater effective coordination is needed among justice companies and different key offerings, in particular fitness, training, and housing offerings.