Mental Health and the Criminal Justice System

I particularly enjoyed the refreshing, challenging and energized style of writing, which engaged the reader in key themes related to mental health. -- Kay Wall, University of Worcester The book clearly raises current and past issues around mental health care provision, CJF and social care amongst people with mental illness.This format works well to create awareness for professional responsibility and accountability in practice, but also critically raises the debate around policy-practice gap relating to mental health provision of mentally ill offenders and wider systemic challenges faced by frontline staff. -- Herbert Mwebe, Middlesex University I find it a very accessible and important contribution to the literature. -- Margarete Parrish, Bournemouth University

The book examines the experiences of people with mental health problems across all stages of the Criminal Justice System. 

The Criminal Justice System is becoming a de facto provider of mental health care, according to a series of recent prison inspections and reports on policing and mental illness which have highlighted the crisis in mental health services.  However, the pressures on prisons and other areas of the CJS mean that the needs of those with mental health problems are often overlooked.  

This book examines the experiences of people with mental health problems across all stages of the CJS and across all the points of contact – police, Courts and prisons between the CJS and people with mental health problems. Providing a clearly written, comprehensive introduction to the main themes in this field, it also has a clear critical edge highlighting the failings in the areas of penal and social policy that have resulted in increasing numbers of people with mental health problems being criminalised.

Highlighting a very important social issue, Mental Health and the Criminal Justice System provides a thorough introduction to this subject for social work students and practitioners.