Prison psychiatric inreach and court liaison services in Ireland

AuthorClare Mcinerney - Conor O'Neill
PositionSenior Registrar in Forensic Psychiatry, Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, Dublin - Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, Court Liaison Service, Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, Dublin
Pages147-158
2008] Prison Psychiatric Inreach 147
PRISON PSYCHIATRIC INREACH
AND COURT LIAISON SERVICES IN IRELAND
CLARE MCINERNEY* AND CONOR ONEILL
INTRODUCTION
The overrepresentation of mental illness in prison
populations compared to community samples has long been
recognised internationally,1 and is particularly true for pre-trial
settings.2 Many reasons have been proposed for this. The
majority of crimes committed by the mentally ill are minor and
non-violent. Only a very small number of individuals with major
mental illness carry out serious offences. When an individual with
mental illness comes before the court, however, he may be less
likely to be successful in seeking bail (and therefore more likely
to enter custody) than a non-mentally-ill defendant, for a number
of reasons: he may be homeless and unable to provide an address,
or he may not have access to the requisite bail bond or a family
member to vouch for him. Due to active symptoms of mental
illness, he may present as disruptive during court proceedings,
and create doubt as to the likelihood of attending his next court
appearance.
Recent Irish studies demonstrate rates of psychosis (the
most severe and disabling form of mental illness) in the sentenced
prison population comparable to other jurisdictions,3 but a much
_____________________________________________________
* Senior Registrar in Forensic Psychiatry, Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum,
Dublin 14.
Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, Court Liaison Service, Central Mental
Hospital, Dundrum, Dublin 14. Any comments or queries can be sent to this
address.
1 Torrey, “Jails and prisons – America’s new mental hospitals”, (1995) 85 (12)
American Journal of Public Health 1611. See also Brugha et al, “Psychosis in
the community and in prisons: a report from the British National Survey of
Psychiatric Morbidity”, (2005) 162 (4) American Journal of Psychiatry 774.
2 Fazel and Danesh, “Serious mental disorder in 23,000 prisoners: a systematic
review of 62 surveys”, (2002) 359 Lancet 545.
3 Duffy et al, “Psychiatric morbidity in the male sentenced Irish prisons
population”, (2006) 23 (2) Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine 54.

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