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The other practical reforms which have been implemented to reducethe prevalence of mental ill-health in young offenders and the problemscaused by this phenomenon will be discussed in greater detail in thefollowing section of this literature review.

20] Are these practical reforms appropriate in light of the policyapproach adopted to reduce the incidence of mental illness in youthoffenders in the UK?

In this section of the literature review we shall examine theparticulars of the current policies and practices and identify thoseareas which are most in need of reform.

One of the most comprehensive evaluations of the current approach totacking mental ill-health in youth prisons is provided by Harringtonand Bailey (2005). Their report identified, as we have argued earlier,that the current approach to the problem of mental ill-health in youngprisoners is very much an ad hoc one; “Provision of mental healthservices in many secure estate institutions was provided on a sessionalbasis by mental health professionals who had a personal interest in thearea. Continuous provision was subsequently vulnerable to changes inpersonnel and priorities and, unlike community child and adult mentalhealth services, a multi-disciplinary approach was not common.[Harrington and Bailey, 2005, p5]” Clearly this is not in-line with thepolicies underlying the introduction of the YOTs which clearly intendedassessments and prospective treatment programmes to be provided by amulti-disciplinary team.

Other findings of this research revealed that it was not routinepractice to assess each offender on admission to young offenderinstitutions, the National Offender Management Service (the newlyintegrated Prison and Probation Services) would rely on previousassessments, where infrequently available. The report also found thatwhere assessments had been, appropriate intervention packages wereoften not available either due to under-resourced treatment programmesor the simple lack of any appropriate programmes.

Another research study, commissioned by the Healthcare Commission,found, similarly, that “Too many young offenders have insufficientaccess to healthcare, particularly the large proportion needing mentalhealth services [HM Inspectorate of Prisons, 1st November 2006].” Thereport found that often YOTs were inappropriately staffed, many lackinga healthcare worker, although did find that generally the introductionof this reform was having positive effects in increasing theaccessibility of mental health services to young offenders. What isclear is that accessibility is simply not enough; to use the old adage,you can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink.

Regarding the introduction of the new range of community Ordersentences, generally these are perceived as a good thing: “A Lack ofAlternatives It is a common complaint of judges that they feel obligedto imprison offenders with mental health problems because they can findno alternative way of getting treatment for their condition.”[All-Party Parliamentary Group on Prison Health, House of Commons,November 2006, p6].

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