LONDON — The first step toward establishing a national service to divert the mentally ill from prison is due to be announced by the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley and Justice Secretary Ken Clarke.
The two cabinet ministers will announce they have found $8 million to put into 100 “diversion sites” across England and Wales as part of their plan to create a national liaison and diversion service by 2014.
The decision is part of Clarke’s plans for a restructuring of the sentencing and prison system, with the money coming mainly from the health budget as the justice ministry grapples with a 23 percent cut in spending.
Clarke’s green paper, Breaking the Cycle, argues the justice system is not always the best place to manage the problems of less serious offenders. A prison service survey published in November revealed that 12 percent of inmates had a mental illness or long-term depression.
The justice ministry says there are currently some limited liaison and diversion services in place around the country, in which health staff are placed at police stations or in courts to screen and assess people for mental health problems. They refer offenders to health services rather than prison or probation, but they are not consistently available.
Read the full article here: Correctional News: London To Divert Mentally Ill From Prison
1st April 2011
From: Correctional News (USA)
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