Insight Briefing: Inappropriate placement of individuals with complex mental health needs and intellectual disability

This Insight Briefing outlines observations and insights on the impact on people with complex mental health disorders or an intellectual disability who are held in prison because suitable specialist services are not available, or who are in specialist services that cannot meet their needs because of capacity pressures.

Our observations arise from our role in monitoring places of detention and oversight of serious incidents in prisons, as well as from our own investigations. We see the real-life consequences of the impact on individuals in detention, including deaths and significant risks to the safety of those on remand. 

Context and considerations

• This is not a formal Ombudsman report. As the focus is at a system-level, the report does not contain any new adverse findings concerning individual agencies. 
• The briefing provides an overview of what we currently know about the issue from our inquiries with agencies and observations from various oversight functions, and signals where we are considering further inquiries and investigation. 
• The briefing includes two anonymised case studies used to illustrate the common patterns that we see and to highlight key risks and the impact on individuals. These draw on cases arising from our work.