Mental health conditions of offenders supervised by probation services
| Published date | 01 June 2013 |
| Author | Dervla McArt |
| Date | 01 June 2013 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0264550513490120 |
| Subject Matter | Research & reports |
Research & reports
The Journal of Community and Criminal Justice
Probation Journal
Research & reports
60(2) 190–194
ª The Author(s) 2013
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DOI: 10.1177/0264550513490120
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Mental health conditions of offenders supervised by
probation services
This briefing paper summarizes the current and potential future links between health
and probation services relevant to the needs of offenders with mental health con-
ditions. The premise of the paper is that 39 per cent of offenders supervised by
probation services have a current mental health problem, yet the Mental Health
Treatment Requirement accounts for less than 1 per cent of requirements disposed.
Therefore, the paper finds that mental health is largely unrecognized and untreated
within the probation caseload.
The paper states two overarching concerns. One concern is that many offenders
with mental health conditions currently go to prison on remand and serve short sen-
tences whereas they ‘could be better managed in the community with the support of
probation services’ (p. 1). The paper lists the varying types of mental health conditions
offenders typically tend to have, such as mood disorder (1 in 6), anxiety disorder (1 in
4), psychotic illness (ten times the national average at 1 in 10) and personality dis-
orders (approximately 1 in 2). There is also another concern that many of these
individuals have considerable alcohol and drug misuse problems. The paper also
highlights another serious issue
the lack of recording of these serious mental health
conditions on probation case files. This is in addition to a lack of support from mental
health services. This is particularly concerning given that ‘suicide rates are known to
be higher in the criminal justice population than in the general population’ (2012: 4),
with suicide accounting for 1 in 8 deaths amongst offenders on probation.
The second concern is in relation to the recent Legal Aid, Sentencing and...
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