Centre for Mental Health

Prisoners are released with nowhere to live and inadequate health care, report finds

2 December 2008

Prisoners with mental health problems are being released without homes to go to, families to support them or jobs, a report from Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health has concluded.

On the Outside: Continuity of care for people leaving prison finds that many released prisoners quickly lose touch with the services that are supposed to support them. Many prisoners do not know where they will be living on release. Some end up on relatives' sofas. Others go to hostels where they fear getting back into drug habits, or they end up on the streets.

The report finds that probation services, charities, health and local authorities all offer considerable support to people leaving prison. Yet efforts to support released prisoners are poorly coordinated, especially for those who have been on short sentences.

Prisoners with the most pressing problems often feel unsupported when their needs are greatest. And services often lose touch with people because they fail to deal with their most urgent needs as a priority.

The report also finds that the Government's early release scheme led some people to leave prison abruptly and without health and social care services being arranged for them.

On the Outside calls on all NHS primary care trusts to ensure that released prisoners are registered with a GP where they are going to live. Mental health services should maintain contact with people who use their services when they go to prison. And all prisoners should have a key care coordinator when they are released to maintain contact with them and help them to navigate their way through the many services they may need to help them to resettle.

Sainsbury Centre chief executive Angela Greatley said: "The days and weeks after people leave prison are times of intense vulnerability. Recently released prisoners are eight times more likely to commit suicide. More than two-thirds of released prisoners go on to be imprisoned again for further offences.

"Public services need to work assertively to resettle prisoners. We must not leave them to take their chances in what for many can be a chaotic and abusive world that leads them back to prison."

Following the publication of On the Outside, Sainsbury Centre is working with Peninsula Medical School on a two year project, Care for Offenders: Continuity of Access (COCOA).