On 1st February 2019, Garry Beadle entered HMP Durham- a men’s prison in Durham, England, notorious for having the highest rates of suicide across prisons nationwide. He was a first-time offender who had been charged with several offences, such as fraud, burglary, theft, and common assault, and was waiting to be given a sentence.
During the month prior to his arrest, Beadle had been homeless for a while and was going through a period of extremely low mental health. He had reportedly been using drugs, had been self-harming, and had also tried to end his own life multiple times during this bout of mental illness. Additionally, he had informed his solicitor and a magistrate that he had been feeling incredibly low and did not believe that he would survive two days of being in prison.
Due to these mental health issues, he was issued a Suicide and Self-Harm form upon his arrival, like all prisoners at risk. Whilst filling out the form, the prison official in charge of him was informed of the severity of his mental health issues, which were unfortunately not relayed in as much detail as they should have been.
Similarly, the nurse in charge of his check-ups and mental health forms did not accurately communicate to the rest of the prison staff that he was going through severe mental health issues, which could have partly been due to the fact that she (alongside many other members of staff) had not received extensive training on how to deal with mental health issues for around six years.
These events were part of the reason why the official ACCT risk levels on his forms to be changed from “moderate” to “low” within days of him being in prison. With this lower level of risk came with much less supervision and longer periods of time alone. It also may have led to the oversight that was delaying the transference of his anti-depressant medication.
Six days after being admitted into the prison, Garry Beadle was hospitalised after another suicide attempt. On 11th February 2019, he ended up passing away after being on life support for four days; he was only thirty-six years old.
Garry Beadle’s death was a huge tragedy for this country and accurately shows one of the biggest issues with the justice system in the United Kingdom, which is the improper care for prisoners with mental health issues. His death is not an isolated incident; there have been many other prisoners, like David Sparrow and Tommy Nicol, who have suffered at the hands of improper mental health assessments and precautions taken in prisons. Government statistics showed that there have been 64,348 cases of self-harm between June 2022-June 2023, furthering illustrating how prevalent this issue is.
In fact, the rates of general mental health issues in prisons are worryingly high as well, as shown by a June 2021 inquest done by HM inspectorate of Prisons, in which 71% of female prisoners and 47% of male prisoners reported to have some form of mental health issue.
In recent years, the NHS has been working to place an emphasis on the importance of maintaining both good mental and good physical health, which is shown through the allocation of around £13 billion of its budget being put towards mental health (2021-2022). Other health organisations are also focusing on mental health, which is shown through the existence of several mental health hotlines, like Mental Health UK, mind, and Samaritans. This is because having good mental health is a right, not a privilege, and whilst prisoners may lose several rights as part of their punishments, the right to obtain healthcare is not one of them. Prisoners deserve to get adequate treatment for their mental health issues (as well as physical), and so we should strive to fix the shortcomings of the UK justice system in regard to mental health in both the short and long term.
Furthermore, we should aim to improve mental health standards for a variety of other reasons as well. The repercussions of improper mental health care for one individual within the prison system affects many others, like the prison officials, medical staff, and other prisoners. A case like Garry Beadle’s would have no doubt traumatised every member of staff involved and caused them to feel guilty for not having intervened earlier.
It is necessary to spend money to make sure that all staff within prisons undergo adequate training about how to spot signs of poor mental health, and what to do in situations where a prisoner is clearly suffering. It is incredibly hard to work in a prison due to a variety of factors, such as low pay, and the added stress that comes with the job, so we should ensure that they do not also have to deal with being potentially unsure how about to deal with a mental health situation.
Similarly, a focus on mental health will benefit the prison system in the long term. Mental health and one’s likelihood to commit a crime are intrinsically linked in many cases (especially ones relating to alcohol misuse or drug charges), and so it is very hard to ensure that someone may not commit the same crimes without addressing the mental health issues and other circumstances that partially drove them to break the law.
Currently, 75% of released prisoners end up back in the prison system, but if we focused on rehabilitation and the allocation of more resources towards mental health care in prisons, this rate could decrease, which in turn would relieve pressure on the justice system and prisons which are already grossly overcrowded.
It may seem counterintuitive to allocate more money towards the prison system, when the ministry of justice’s budget for the system has been steadily increasing every year, and especially during a period of financial instability and an economic depression, but this would be a good investment of money in the long run.
It costs around £40,000 for one person to remain in a UK prison for one year, and when we have around 96,000 people in prisons (June 2023), with a projection rate of 106,300 by March 2027, a huge part of the budget is going towards just housing, transporting and feeding the prisoners. If prison officials were able to focus on rehabilitating prisoners already within the system, and treating their mental health issues, perhaps the number of returning prisoners would decrease, which in turn would reduce the amount of money being spent on just giving prisoners basic necessities and increase the amount of money that can be spent on other aspects of the prison system, which are desperately in need of further funding.
Alongside the allocation of more money towards rehabilitation programs and more frequent training for prison officials, another way to improve mental health standards within the UK prison system would be to create more comprehensive laws surrounding this topic. An independent inquiry issued by the government that was released in 2018 showed that the mental health act of 1983 fell noticeably short on safeguarding laws and protection of prisoners in relation to the topic of mental health. Furthermore, it also showed that the act especially did not provide adequate protection to more vulnerable groups, like people of colour, people with mental and physical disabilities, and members of the LGBTQ community.
The government under the leadership of Boris Johnson drew up a bill for a new mental health act in 2022 as a response to the results of this inquiry but it is yet to be passed. If passed, the government would reduce the waiting time for prisoners to be hospitalised or receive psychiatric treatment, which would hugely benefit prisoners, and ensure that their mental health issues don’t necessarily get worse. It would also give the prisoners more autonomy over their mental health treatments. Encouraging further discussions about prisoners’ mental health within parliament would be incredibly beneficial, especially since there hasn’t been a mental health act relating to prisons that has been passed since 1983.
Whilst the justice system is flawed in many ways, we definitely have the ability to create reforms that will improve the mental health of prisoners, and so we should focus on this goal, in order to create positive impacts within the justice system, and wider society in the short and long term. We can create reforms through more comprehensive laws and higher healthcare budgets for prisoners. We can also create change on a personal level by discussing the topic of mental health within prisons more frequently and speaking out about the benefits of rehabilitative prison systems.
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