Treating mentally ill offenders could save up to £700m a year, experts say

15 Jun 09
Diverting offenders with mental health problems away from the criminal justice system and into treatment could save £700m a year, a leading research centre has claimed.

By David Williams

Diverting offenders with mental health problems away from the criminal justice system and into treatment could save £700m a year, a leading research centre has claimed.

Diverting offenders with mental health problems away from the criminal justice system and into treatment could save £700m a year, a leading research centre has claimed.

A report published by the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health on February 23, Diversion: a better way for criminal justice and mental health, recommended the establishment of a national scheme to support criminals with mental health needs.

The researchers argued that schemes funded jointly by the NHS and criminal justice agencies could save £20,000 for every person kept out of jail.

A spokesman for the centre told Public Finance that an investment of £30m would enable diversion schemes to be set up in every primary care trust area in the country. He added that the £700m figure was a conservative estimate.

The savings cover police, court and prison costs, the expense to victims of crime and the reduction of repeat offences, which stands at 75% for short-term prisoners. Coverage by existing schemes is ‘piecemeal and haphazard’, the report added.

The findings have been backed by the former chief inspector of prisons, Lord Ramsbotham. He told PF that it ‘stood to reason’ that these problems should be treated properly. ‘The government have been hurling people into prison, many of whom should not be there,’ he said.

‘It says its role is to protect the public by preventing reoffending. If there is a mental health problem you have to do something about it, otherwise they will do it again.’

Around 200,000 offenders are processed by the criminal justice system annually and 90% of prisoners suffer from mental illness. The national network should begin at arrest and continue through trial, imprisonment and release, the report said.

The research will form part of an official government review into mental health and criminal justice led by Lord Bradley, due to be published this spring.

Fabian Hamilton, who chairs the Commons all-party group on prison health, described the centre’s £30m investment figure as ‘peanuts’.

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