Mental Health In Prisons - John Battle's Letter to The Guardian

Letters Editor
The Guardian
0207 837 4530

6 December 2004

I was delighted to see the Guardian’s special report on mental health in prisons today – tragically the Tories’ drastic cuts to mental health services did indeed result in care in the community becoming care in custody. This was absolutely preventable, and was widely predicted at the time, as the utterly inadequate budgets sabotaged the chance to provide much better care.

Armley Prison in my constituency is pioneering three superb initiatives with great potential to improve mental health care for offenders and those on remand. Working with Leeds West Primary Care Trust, the prison has set up a mental health “in-reach” team led by a consultant psychiatrist working with prisoners with poor mental health and able to ensure that care continues without a break once they leave prison.

The Jigsaw Centre takes the same approach of linking services inside and outside the prison and extends it to prisoners’ families and to help with drug and alcohol addiction – often linked with mental health problems.

And the Chaplaincy are leading a project working with all sectors of the community to train and provide mentors for ex-offenders to them re-settle into life on the outside. The Home Office is keen to assess how each pilot performs here in west Leeds and apply the lessons across the prison system.

Yours sincerely

John Battle MP
(Labour, Leeds West)

© John Battle MP 6th December 2004

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