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Urgent psychiatric transfers from prison in England and Wales: a prison perspective
Author(s) -
ANDERSON JAMES B,
PARROTT JANET
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
criminal behaviour and mental health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1471-2857
pISSN - 0957-9664
DOI - 10.1002/cbm.1995.5.1.34
Subject(s) - prison , psychiatry , mental illness , mental health act , medicine , mental health , remand (court procedure) , emergency department , medical emergency , psychology , criminology , law , supreme court , political science
Prisoners on remand are at high risk of mental illness. They have a high rate of suicide and a high incidence of psychotic illness. Provision does exist within the Mental Health Act (1983) for the emergency transfer of remanded prisoners by transfer order (section 48), but this facility is used to varying degrees throughout England and Wales. This is a retrospective case study of all patients transferred from Belrnarsh Prison under this emergency provision (S48) between April 1991 and March 1992. Twenty‐two transfers were enacted (two patients on two separate occasions) during the trial period. Of these 22, 15 (68%) had a paranoid psychotic illness; 14/20 (70%) had committed serious violent offences; 14/22 (63%) were transferred to locked wards of general psychiatric hospitals; 5 (22%) went to regional secure units; 3 (14%) went to maximum secure hospitals. Rapid transfer to psychiatric hospital for all those offenders who are seriously psychiatrically ill is one of the main recommendations of a recent Department of Health/Home Office Report (Department of Health/Home Office, 1991). The existing provisions are shown to be an effective means to enact such emergency transfers. Many such transfers can be managed in the general psychiatric service.