No services, as such, are provided by the Courts Service. However, the courts do exercise wardship jurisdiction in respect of mentally incapacitated persons and of minors. Individuals who are mentally incapacitated and are brought into wardship before reaching the age of majority, namely, 18 years of age, are taken in as minors.
Prisoners with mental health problems have access to medical, nursing, psychiatric, and psychology services within the prison system. Where a prisoner develops a short term mental illness and happens to be located in a prison where the incidence of such problems is insufficient to justify the provision of dedicated services, arrangements may be made for temporary transfer of the prisoner concerned to an alternative prison location where care can be provided. Where in-patient treatment is indicated, prisoners may be transferred to the Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum.
As regards the provision of mental health services to people within prison, the priority is on seeking to ensure the availability of any service deemed necessary within the resource constraints applying. It is, of course, the principle to apply similar regulations and norms, in as much as these apply to this age category, as apply elsewhere in the general community.
