Crime reduction charity Nacro has produced the first national directory of criminal justice mental health liaison and diversion schemes for a decade to encourage the diversion of offenders with mental health needs away from the criminal justice system and into appropriate treatment.
In the early 1990s the Home Office issued guidance encouraging health, social care and criminal justice agencies to work together to provide services for offenders with mental health needs within an area. Provision remains patchy across England and Wales, but Nacro’s new directory brings together information and contact details of all existing schemes.
Criminal justice mental health liaison schemes bring local partners together to ensure that, where appropriate, offenders with mental health needs are diverted from the criminal justice system into care and treatment from the health and social care sectors. They also seek to ensure that, where a prosecution is to be pursued, relevant information about an offender's mental condition is made available to the courts and the Crown Prosecution Service.
Despite evidence that offenders with mental health needs can be far more effectively dealt with through care and treatment, this area of work has been much neglected, particularly when compared to the focus placed on other initiatives such as prison mental health in-reach and crisis/assertive outreach teams.
Nacro has produced the directory with the following aims:
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raising the profile of the valuable work of these schemes with commissioners, potential referrers and defendants;
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ensuring appropriate referrals for assessment for defendants and offenders with potential mental health needs;
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increasing the communication between the schemes to help them to share practice and overcome any operational difficulties;
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assisting areas with no provision to benefit from shared practice and establish new arrangements.
Launching the directory, Paul Cavadino, Chief Executive of Nacro, said:
"There are at least 5,000 people with serious mental health needs in prison receiving inadequate support and treatment or none at all. Criminal justice mental health liaison and diversion schemes are a vital element in ensuring that offenders’ mental health needs are recognised and receive the right treatment for the problems that are causing or contributing to their offending behaviour.
“This is the first such directory to be published in a decade, and coincides with the forthcoming Bradley Review into the diversion of people with mental health needs. We believe that it will be a useful resource to practitioners, commissioners and people experiencing mental distress in the criminal justice system."
ENDS
Notes to editors
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Nacro’s directory of criminal justice mental health liaison and diversion schemes is available online at: http://www.nacro.org.uk/data/resources/nacro-2008121700.pdf
The directory provides contact information for all schemes in England and Wales and is arranged by region. Each entry also details the courts, prisons and police stations covered by the scheme.
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Nacro believes that all magistrates’ courts, police stations, prisons and probation offices should have access to a court diversion/criminal justice liaison scheme in order to more easily access psychiatric assessment for offenders suspected of having a mental disorder. These schemes should be integrated into mainstream services rather than existing as add-on arrangements with few links to strategic planning.
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Court diversion schemes were set up in response to Home Office circulars 66/90 and 12/95 which encouraged health, social care and criminal justice agencies to work together to provide services for offenders with mental health problems.
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Lord Bradley is due to report early next year on a review into the treatment of people with severe mental health needs in the criminal justice system. The review was commissioned by Jack Straw, Secretary of State for Justice.
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Nacro's Mental Health Unit aims to improve responses to defendants and offenders with mental health issues. Nacro believes that responses should focus on care and treatment rather than punishment. To promote this we provide a range of policy development, information and consultancy services to individuals and the various agencies that have dealings with those with mental health needs across the criminal justice, health and social care sectors. Our key objective is to help develop effective policy and practice.
