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Female prison transfers to the Central Mental Hospital, a Special Hospital (1983–1988)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2014

Art O'Connor  and
Helen O'Neill
Art O'Connor
Affiliation:
The Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, Dublin 14
Helen O'Neill
Affiliation:
The Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, Dublin 14
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Abstract

During the course of imprisonment, whether on remand or when serving a sentence, people sometimes need to be transferred to a psychiatric hospital. In the Republic of Ireland the only psychiatric hospital a person can be transferred to is the Central Mental Hospital (C.M.H.).

We describe 99 female prison transfers to the C.M.H. between 1983 and 1988. The mean age of the 70 sentenced prisoners was 26.43 years and that of the 29 remand prisoners was 33 years. The primary diagnoses were Schizophrenia (11), Mania (7), Depression and Stress (23), Personality Disorder (36), Mental Handicap (2) and Drug Addiction (16). The longest average stay at the hospital was for personality disorders (5 weeks). The longest sentences were for drugs offences. There were no cases of homicide or sex offences. We recommend that many of these cases could be handled in their catchment area hospital rather than in a high security Special Hospital.

Keywords

Forensic PsychiatryPrisonsPrison TransfersFemalesSpecial Hospitals
Type
Original Papers
Information
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , September 1991 , pp. 122 - 123
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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