A follow‐up study of mentally disordered men remanded to prison

Abstract

Little is known about the extent to which mental disorder is identified

Mental illness at reception into prison

“…In a longitudinal study at a large remand prison in the North East of England, however, we found that of the 26% of unconvicted, newly remanded male prisoners who suffered from some form of mental disorder (excluding substance misuse) on their entry to prison, only a minority became known to the prison health service during their time spent on remand. In particular, the routine prison healthcare screen administered to all new prisoners detected abnormalities in less than one-quarter of these men, with those suffering from acute psychoses just as likely to be missed as those with other forms of mental disorder (Birmingham et al, 1996(Birmingham et al, , 1998.…”

Mental disorder and prisons

“…When communication breaks down altogether, the result can be the sudden and unpredicted release of someone with acute psychosis who is then lost to follow-up in the community. More often, however, mentally ill prisoners receive no treatment or after-care when they are released because their treatment needs are not properly recognised (Birmingham et al, 1998;Dell et al, 1993).…”

Development and evaluation of a screening tool for identifying prisoners with severe mental illness

“…Traditional methods of health screening at reception into prison are quite ineffective (Mitchison et al, 1994;Birmingham et al, 1997;Parsons et al, 2001). Once prisoners with mental illness find their way on to ordinary prison wings there is a significant risk that their mental health problems will remain unrecognised and their needs will remain unmet (Birmingham et al, 1998). A new prison reception health screen is being introduced (Grubin et al, 2002).…”