Annual reports from the Independent Monitoring Boards at HMP’s Downview – a public-sector women’s prison – and Oakwood – a privately run male prison – have expressed serious concerns over ‘unacceptable delays’ in the treatment of severely mentally unwell prisoners. 

The IMBs at both prisons maintained that the stipulated 28-day timeframe between the referral of severely mentally unwell prisoners and their safe transfer to community mental health units was not being achieved – meaning that seriously ill people were held in unsatisfactory and distressing conditions. 

Emma Wilson, Chair of the IMB at HMP Downview, commented:

‘The general public would be shocked to learn that there are many mentally unwell women who should not be detained in a prison environment. It is a shameful indictment of our mental health system to see the punitive and unsuitable conditions in which these women are held.’

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