8,000 ‘wrongly jailed’

THOUSANDS of people with a mental health disorder are in prison because no safer alternatives were available when a court had to pass sentence.

Up to 8,000 prisoners — around 10% of inmates in England and Wales — could have missed out on a community sentence or a suspended prison sentence with a Mental Health Treatment Requirement (MHTR) because specialist mental health services do not have the resources to deliver them, says the Royal College of Psychiatrists

To improve uptake of MHTRs the Royal College of Psychiatrists has produced guidance to encourage psychiatrists regardless of specialty to deliver them.

The RCP is also calling for £12m funding for mental health services so that no-one who could benefit from an MHTR is denied one because of a lack of availability within mental health services to deliver them.