The rate of severe mental illness among prisoners on remand in jails is almost 40 times higher than among the general community, according to research conducted for the Irish Prison Service, writes Carl O'Brien, Social Affairs Correspondent.
The study, yet to be officially published, provides the first detailed picture of the extent of mental illness in prisons and points to serious deficiencies in the health and justice systems.
The rate of serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, recorded in the study among remand prisoners is at least twice the rate of similar studies conducted in prisons internationally.
Mental Illness in Irish Prisoners, which involved interviews with 1,580 inmates, is the largest research undertaken on the Irish prison population. Dr Harry Kennedy, clinical director of the Central Mental Hospital, said the findings raised serious concern about the way mentally-ill people were being processed by the criminal justice system.
"Why are so many people with psychosis in prison? It's because of their illness. There is a fundamental unfairness that people with the most devastating mental illness are so likely to end up in prison.
"Prison is a toxic place for people with serious mental illnesses. What we're looking at here is the end result of a system that is a net with lots of holes."
The high level of mental illness among prisoners on remand suggests that mentally-ill people are being placed in prison for often minor offences. Much lower levels of serious mental illness - about 13 times the community rate - were found among sentenced prisoners.
The research also found:
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, who yesterday announ- ced a €4 million renovation programme for padded cells in the 10 prisons around the country, accepted that mentally-ill people were more likely to end up in prison. He said his department was working on ways to improve the relationship between prisons and psychiatric services.