Vol. 456 No. 5
101 Miss M. Wallace asked the Minister for Justice the arrangements, if any, she has for monitoring the number of mentally handicapped persons in prisons; the number of such persons in prison in each of the last ten years; the special facilities provided for such persons; and the diagnostic procedures for identifying such people within the criminal justice system. [14209/95]
All prisoners are medically examined shortly after committal. It is at this juncture that an inmate's mental handicap would be likely to be detected. My information is that the number of committals of obviously mentally handicapped persons (as opposed to psychiatrically disturbed prisoners) over the last ten years has been negligible. The issue of special facilities for mentally handicapped persons within the prisons has therefore not arisen. I should add, however, that the prison medical and psychological services liaise as required with specialist agencies in the community with a view to arranging appropriate care facilities for individual offenders as the need arises.
