Centre for Mental Health

The Criminal Justice System

The criminal justice system includes prisons, secure hospitals, community sentences, probation, the police and courts.

Our work focuses on the experience of people with mental health problems in the criminal justice system and how that system could provide better value through more effective approaches to mental ill health and offending.

The convergence of criminal justice and mental health policy and legislation

This project examined the convergence of mental health and criminal justice policy, legislation, systems and practice. It combined policy and legislative analysis, written evidence from leading experts (including civil servants, professionals, academics and clinicians), and a scenario modeling event.

The final report is now available. Blurring the Boundaries demonstrates current instances of convergence, and proposes recommendations for managing the implications of convergence for mental health and criminal justice services in the future.

Below you can view a presentation about convergence and some examples.

Watch the report's author, Max Rutherford, introducing the subject.

Improving Health, Supporting Justice

We have responded to the Government's Improving Health, Supporting Justice strategy, as part of the The Mental Health and Criminal Justice Third Sector Forum.

Our response said that major changes to the way offenders are dealt with by the police, by the courts, in prison and on release were needed. Unless more people are diverted from custody and given better help to rehabilitate themselves, reoffending will continue at a high level and offenders will not get the support they need for mental health problems.

We urged the Government to re-balance penal policy so that more people can be diverted from custody: especially women and children. Social care should have a bigger role in the management of offenders to improve their prospects of having somewhere to live and a family to go back to. And the Government should re-consider its apparent shelving of the proposed Custody Plus scheme to help with the resettlement of offenders.

You can get the full response below.

Download the response to Improving Health, Supporting Justice (76 KB)

Effectiveness of spending on the criminal justice system

We have submitted our evidence to the House of Commons Justice Committee inquiry into the effectiveness of spending on the criminal justice system in the UK.

We believe that:

• The effectiveness of prison should be judged not only on reoffending but through outcomes such as improved health, housing and employment.
• Prison mental health care needs to be improved, especially for those with complex problems, depression and anxiety.
• Rehabilitation needs to focus on what offenders want for their lives.
• indeterminate sentences and more hospital transfers are costly and delay prisoners' resettlement.
• Diversion from custody can be cost-effective. Community-based alternatives need to be developed.
• Women, children and young people are especially damaged by custody. Investment in community support is vital.
• Anti-social behaviour orders are being used too commonly with people with mental health problems.
• Early years work with young children at risk of emotional or behavioural problems is highly cost-effective in reducing offending later in life.

Download our evidence to the Justice Committee (64 KB)

Please note that:

The Committee will in due course decide which of the submissions it has received it wishes to accept as formal evidence and publish. The Committee has authorised persons and organisations to make public their submission prior to it being published by the Committee, should they wish to do so. The submission has yet to be formally accepted as evidence and, as it has not been made public under the authority of the Committee, it does not attract Parliamentary privilege.