Imprisoning the mentally ill is just plain crazy

Imprisoning the mentally ill is just plain crazy - August 23rd, 2010 - By Paul Papalia, WA Labor MP

Ask yourself a question: Is the rate of mental illness in Western Australian prisons higher than the rate in the wider community?

It’s not a trick question. You don’t need to be an expert. Gut feel – yes or no?

I’m guessing most people would say yes. I did.

So did the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare in 2009 when they put the number of prisoners across the country suffering from diagnosed mental illness at 37%. Here in WA, the Network of Alcohol and Other Drug Agencies estimates the likely figure for prisoners suffering from mental illness at 62%.

A 2006 study by the NSW based Centre for Health Research in Criminal Justice was even more alarming. It found the twelve month prevalence of any psychiatric illness was 80% in prisoners versus 30% for a like sample group of the community.

The numbers vary but they all say the rate of mental illness in prisons is higher than in the community.

So why doesn’t our state government agree? The senior law officer of the state, Attorney General Christian Porter, insists there is a higher rate of mental illness in the community than in our prisons.

During question time in November last year, Mr Porter gleefully compared the 14% reported rate of mental illness in our prisons with a community rate of 22%. He said, “We actually have fewer mentally unwell people in the prison system than we do in the population at large.”

Think about that. Using his logic, the Attorney General could claim he is actually reducing the rate of mental illness in the community by driving up the state’s prison population – the more people in our prisons , the lower the rate of mental illness!

It doesn’t make any sense unless you step back and put the Attorney General’s claims in context of the wider debate about Corrective Services.

Christian Porter doesn’t want anyone to question his law and order agenda. The revelation that mentally ill people are being warehoused in our prisons might dent his credibility.

On June 16 this year Christian Porter said, “There is not one group of people out of the 4,800 in prison who could be easily shifted out of prison or who should not be there by way of sentencing, administrative techniques or parole that the community will not legitimately expect should be in prison.”

Now let me put on the record, I believe there are bad people who commit terrible crimes and who must be kept in prison.

But I also think community sympathy for the plight of mentally ill people has grown in recent years thanks to the efforts of high profile sufferers like Jeff Kennett and Geoff Gallop. Most people would be disturbed to think mentally ill people are warehoused in our prisons because we don’t have an alternative.

If Judges had the option of ordering a mentally ill offender to be treated in a ‘declared place’ which was more like a secure residential facility than a prison, there might be a number of appropriate offenders diverted from our prisons.

It would result in better outcomes for mentally ill people and probably be much cheaper than the $100,000 cost every year for each of the state’s prisoners.

Of course, suitable mentally ill prisoners couldn’t be “easily shifted.” For starters, politicians in this state would have to abandon the stupid ‘tough on crime’ rhetoric they love.

They’d also have to commission an independent study of the state’s prisons to get the real rate and composition of mental illness amongst prisoners.

And finally, they’d have to redirect some of the $655 million allocated to building prisons in the next 3 years towards developing secure residential facilities.

Shifting selected mentally ill people from our prisons might not be easy but it may prove cheaper and more effective than not doing it.

More importantly, it might be the right thing to do!

Paul Papalia is the Labor MP for the seat of Warnbro in Western Australia. He’s also the Shadow Minister for Corrective Services.

SOURCE: http://www.wangle.com.au/vip/imprisoning-the-mentally-ill-is-just-plain-...