Admissions to a prison psychiatric unit

Fifty consecutive admissions to the psychiatric division in a central metropolitan goal were given DSM III diagnoses and their psychiatric, social and criminal histories analysed. Seventy-two per cent suffered from schizophrenic, affective or organic mental illness, 56% had chronic physical disabilities and 84% had had previous in-patient treatment in either hospital or prison or both. Fifty-four per cent exhibited psychopathology that most clinicians would have thought required urgent attention. Of the current offences committed by this group 54% were against the person (murder, assaults, sex offences and robbery). A significant proportion of these were committed by a distinct subgroup composed of socially isolated schizophrenics with no prior convictions, no physical illness, apparently normal premorbid personalities, and a greater current level of psychiatric disturbance. It is argued that the group as a whole, and this subgroup in particular exemplify the problems of the psychiatrically disturbed offender. Prison psychiatric facilities are inadequate for the range of functions they are being asked to serve and their token placement in the correctional services by-passes many important clinical, social and legal issues.