Centre for Mental Health

Community Sentences with mental health treatment growing but a missed opportunity for most, says Sainsbury Centre

27 July 2009

More Mental Health Treatment Requirements are being issued to offenders on community sentences than ever before. But they are still being given to fewer than one in 100 offenders in the community despite high levels of need for mental health care, Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health said today.

Figures obtained from a Parliamentary Question by Lord Bradley show that 918 Mental Health Treatment Requirements (MHTRs) were given to offenders as part of a community order or a suspended sentence order in 2008, compared with 848 in 2007, and the highest number given to date.

The figures also show significant regional variation in the use of MHTRs. London gave nearly a third of all MHTRs (281), while in the North East only 33 were issued.

Sainsbury Centre policy officer Max Rutherford today commented on the new figures: "Mental Health Treatment Requirements, introduced in 2005, are a potential way of diverting offenders with a wide range of mental health problems away from short prison sentences.

"The MHTR truly is a missed opportunity for the many thousands of people with mental health problems who go to prison each year on short sentences. Short prison sentences do little to stop people offending again, they can damage mental health and they are costly to the taxpayer. Instead of being imprisoned and separated from their families, people could be getting mental health care as part of a community sentence and building more productive lives."

The MHTR is one of twelve possible requirements for people subject to community sentences in England and Wales. It can require a person to undergo mental health treatment for a specified period of time, often alongside other requirements such as supervision by probation services or unpaid work.

The figures were obtained from a Parliamentary Question by Rt Hon Lord Bradley: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many community sentences with a mental health treatment order were issued in each region of England in each of the last three years. The full answer is available on the Hansard website.

Lord Bradley's Report into the experiences of people with mental health problems or learning disabilities in the criminal justice system, published in April 2009, called for more government guidance and research on the use of the MHTR.

Jack Straw, Secretary of State for Justice, recently spoke on Radio 4 (World at One, 2 July 2009) about the potential benefits of the MHTR:

"Through a community order which involves mental health treatment you keep an offender out of prison, you save a lot of money, and we think that above and beyond the initial costs of the [mental health court] pilot, which are £400,000 all together, you will be able to have these systems in place without spending any significant amounts of money."