Written Answers. - Prison Committals.
Liz McManus
Question:
357
Ms McManus
asked the
Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform
the number of prisoners; the number and proportion of prisoners with a recognised mental disturbance or disorder on admittance to prison; the number and proportion of prisoners admitted with a history of suicide attempts; the extent to which a psychiatric or psychological assessment is automatically made of each prisoner on admittance; and the number of psychiatrists and psychologists working on a full-time basis with prisons.
[26942/99]
There were 2,769 prisoners in custody on Thursday, 9 December 1999. It is not possible to quantify the number and proportion of these prisoners with a recognised mental disturbance or disorder on admittance or those with a history of suicide attempts. I can confirm, however, that a study, of randomly selected prisoners undertaken in Mountjoy in 1992-93 has shown that up to 5% of committals to prison are persons who demonstrate psychiatric problems.
As part of the committal procedure, a document known as a committal details form is completed. A prison reception officer enters the prisoners details on this form. The information entered is quite detailed and includes particulars in relation to the current sentence and previous committal periods as well as personal details such as date of birth, address, next of kin, marital status, physical features, drug and psychiatric history.
A medical orderly or prison nurse also interviews each prisoner on committal. The medical orderly or nurse takes medical details from the prisoner including particulars on his GP if any, current medication and medical history. The prisoner is also questioned regarding his or her history of drug or alcohol abuse, psychiatric illness and previous self-harm. The details are recorded on a medical record form
The accuracy of the personal information entered on the committal and medical forms relies largely on the willingness of the prisoner to give full and frank details. The provision of any immediate follow up medical or other attention will often depend on the provision by the prisoner of accurate information.
Each prisoner is seen by the prison doctor within 24 hours of committal. In the event that the doctor considers, on the basis of his examination or the details declared by the prisoner, that further specialist referral, including psychiatric referral, is necessary then this is arranged. In the case where a prisoner declares a medical issue requiring verification or consultation with other medical agencies in the community, the prison, doctor would make the appropriate enquiries having obtained the prisoner's consent to do this.
Data is not maintained in a manner which would enable the prison authorities to give an accurate picture of the number of prisoners who had a history of suicide attempts. The information is maintained on each prisoner's file and is not collated centrally. As I have already stated, the accuracy of the personal information gained relies largely on the willingness of the prisoner to give full and frank details. The same would largely be true, if it came to an estimation of the number of suicide attempts amongst those who never entered the prison system.
There are nine full-time and one half-time psychologists in my Department's psychology service working on a permanent basis in the prison system. The service is recruiting extra staff at present. In December 1998 I established a group to examine and report on the future needs, structure and organisation of the psychology service. The report of this group was presented to me in August this year and has recently been published. The report contains 15 key recommendations including the recruitment of a further ten psychologists to ensure a minimum strength of 20. I have asked the director general of the Prisons Service to examine the report with a view to its implementation as appropriate.
There are no psychiatrists assigned to prisons on a full time basis. The psychiatric service is provided to the prisons and places of detention by visiting psychiatrists employed by the health boards. The psychiatric service of the Eastern Health Board at the Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, provide regular weekly counselling and treatment sessions at the Dublin prisons. Offenders who, in the opinion of the psychiatrist and the prison medical officer are in need of in-patient psychiatric treatment, may be transferred by ministerial order to either the Central Mental Hospital or a district mental hospital. In practice all such transfers occur to the Central Mental Hospital. I recently announced the establishment of a multi-disciplinary group to conduct an independent review of the structure and organisation of prison health care services. The terms of reference of the review group include an examination of the provision of psychiatric services to prisoners.
