Up to 90 per cent of Northern Ireland prisoners have mental health or other personality disorders, the head of the Prison Service said today.
Director of the Prison Service Robin Masefield
Director Robin Masefield also warned many inmates were long-term unemployed with chronic disease and alcohol addiction. He was speaking at a conference on promoting healthy prisons in Lisburn.
"It has been widely recorded that as many as 90 per cent have some mental health or personality disorder problems," he said. "Two thirds have the reading and mathematical ability of an 11-year-old or less when they come to us."
The health and social services authorities will take over responsibility for welfare in prisons from next April.
Mr Masefield said the service had appointed a manager for prisoner health and established addiction services and other policies, but lobbyists claimed inmates with serious difficulties should not be behind bars.
Howard League for Penal Reform director Frances Crook said: "It is dealing with the symptom and not the problem. We are sending people to prison and it isn't dealing with the problem.
"The Prison Service isn't a health service and should not be accepting people who need mental health care."
"There are a small number of people who are career criminals but the majority of people have got caught up in offending (because of their condition) and would be better dealt with elsewhere," he said.
PA