Nacro, the crime reduction charity, is launching a guide to help deal with the thousands of people with mental health problems being yo-yoed back and forth from prison to the community without support.

Reoffending rates have been estimated to cost £10 billion a year. (1) Nacro’s Resettling Prisoners with Mental Health Needs or a Learning Disability guide provides advice and guidance to practitioners about accessing resettlement services and improving information sharing, to reduce the number of people being failed by the system.

Over 70% of the prison population suffer from two or more mental disorders. (2)
Research shows that 96% of mentally disordered prisoners are put back into the community without supported housing and more than three quarters had been given no appointment with outside carers. (3)

Dave Spurgeon, Policy Development Manager at Nacro says: “People with mental health problems and learning disabilities on short term prison sentences are being recycled through the system, when many shouldn’t be there at all. They may come out with no fixed address making it difficult to access healthcare, medication and other necessary support. This can make already vulnerable people with chaotic lives, far more likely to fall back into a cycle of crime.”

Lord Ramsbotham, former HM Chief Inspector of Prisons says: “When it comes to this group of prisoners, it is all too often about ‘settlement’ rather than ‘resettlement’ because the individual concerned was not settled in society before he or she went into prison in the first place. More often than not, there are no doctor’s notes to consult, either because the person is not aware of his or her condition or has not sought help beforehand. It is essential therefore that information-sharing protocols are established to ensure the information gathered in prison is not in vain.”

Nacro’s Resettling Prisoners with Mental Health Needs or a Learning Disability guide is being launched at Church House, Westminster at 4.30pm on Monday 14 June and will be available to order from www.nacro.org.uk for £5. It covers information on accommodation, including supported housing, education, training, employment, health, drugs and alcohol, finance, benefit and debt, children and families and attitudes, thinking and behaviour.

ENDS

For further media information contact Olivia Ware, Media Relations Manager on 020 7840 7216 / 07974 1189979 or olivia.ware@nacro.org.uk

Notes to editor

(1) National Audit Office report March 2010 http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/0910/short_custodial_sentences.aspx

(2) Office of National Statistics October 1998

(3) Melzer et al (2002) Prisoners with psychosis in England and Wales: a one-year national follow-up study, The Howard Journal 41

(4) Nacro, the national crime reduction charity, works with disadvantaged people, deprived communities and ex-offenders to give them a positive stake in society. It has unrivalled expertise in developing practical responses to crime and stimulating fresh thinking on how best to reduce it through policy, research and campaign work.

(5) Nacro runs preventive projects to steer young people away from crime, provides housing, education and employment programmes for ex-offenders and people at risk of offending, resettles prisoners into the community and works with families and communities to prevent crime.

(6) Every year Nacro works directly with over 90,000 people and many more benefit from our work with local, regional and national partners to help reduce crime. To find out more and for access to online information resources, please visit: www.nacro.org.uk