Jails fail mentally ill

Prison chaplains and former prisoners alike have backed Archbishop Peter Jensen’s claim that the prison system is ‘expensive, discriminatory and ineffective’.

In an opinion piece for The Sydney Morning Herald last month, Dr Jensen called on the people of NSW to support moves towards a more just and compassionate system.

“Do we approve prisoners being locked in small cells, like caged animals, for 17.5 hours a day?
There are reports that this has happened in some facilities because of staff shortages and overcrowding.”

Dr Jensen says one of the key tests for the spiritual good health of a community is the quality of its prisons and he particularly criticised the lack of care for the many mentally ill people within the prison population.

“Now is the time for the community to say that, as part of the cry for law and order, we look for a just and compassionate corrective system, one that actually helps people not to re-offend and that allows for greater options in treating ill people when necessary,” he said.

St Paul’s, Castle Hill member and former prisoner Cameron Watt spent two and a half years in jail for ‘white collar crime’. He was released in October 2006. During his time in Silverwater prison, Mr Watt says there was a six-month stretch without a single psychologist in the entire jail.

“The problem is, there are people in prison who are mentally ill, but there are not special places for them and they don’t have the ability to see professionals that can help them,” he says.

“Then they are put in the general prison population with guys who are criminally minded, but society’s attitude is that it’s safer if they are in jail than wandering the streets. In some cases these guys may have done something illegal, but don’t even realise.”

Anglican chaplain at the remand centre in Silverwater prison, the Rev David Pettett confirms that mentally ill people make up a disproportionately high number of prisoners.

“People with mental illness are out on the streets and not getting the community care they need,” he says. “They are committing crimes due to their illness, but instead of getting treatment in hospital, they get incarcerated.”

Mr Watt says some prisoners’ families have spent up to $1,500 to pay external psychiatrists to go into jails and have sessions with their incarcerated mentally ill relative. 

“The problem is, prisoners and the mentally ill will not win votes at election time. They cannot get the funding they need and are left to the back of the pack,” he says.

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