The ministries of justice, health and security are currently collaborating to identify facilities to house mentally ill inmates who are being kept at correctional facilities because they have no relatives to assist them with accommodation.

This development forms part of a new thrust to address the situation relating to mentally ill people who are held in the correctional system.

“We are in the process; there is inter-ministerial collaboration — the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of National Security — so that we can identify facilities where the accommodation of persons without the social support may be directed,” executive director of the Legal Aid Council Hugh Faulkner said in a telephone interview with the Jamaica Observer.

According to Faulkner, there are about 100 mentally ill inmates in correctional facilities across the island, some for more than 20 years. He noted that one of the factors contributing to the incidence is the unavailability of mental health institutions where mentally ill offenders can be accommodated and treated.

“We think the desirable place for inmates with mental illness is a mental facility where they can be treated, especially when the offence for which they are charged does not warrant a sentence of incarceration,” he said.

The lack of family support is another factor contributing to the detention of mentally ill inmates, Faulkner said.

He pointed out that the Correctional Services Department has a division that is responsible for locating relatives of mentally ill inmates, but in many cases they are unwilling or unable to receive them.

“Whenever we have a report from the doctor that continued medication and treatment are required and that the person is unfit to plead, without family members coming forward we have to wait until we have the requisite accommodation in place before we can ask for a favourable outcome,” Faulkner explained.

He cited one instance in which the brother of one mentally ill inmate was unwilling to take time off from work to support his brother in court.

“We need expanded capacity at an institution, whether public or private, so that in instances where we can seek a favourable outcome we can do so in the absence of family members who are either unwilling or unable,” said Faulkner.

The Legal Aid Council was mandated by the Ministry of Justice in February of this year to provide further resources to people in the island’s prisons who are mentally ill.

According to Faulkner, there are two categories of mentally ill inmates — those who are deemed unfit by a psychiatrist to plead and those, who, after pleading guilty, are found to be mentally ill. Some of these cases, Faulkner said, are inactive because the inmates in some cases missed their court dates, while the names of others fell off the court list.

However, Faulkner said the council has been working assiduously to allow everyone to have their day in court. As an example, he said that on May 22, 18 applications were made in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court to have matters relisted. It was found out then that some of the cases were active, which ended positively for Seivright Spencer, who was deemed fit to plead.

Spencer who had been in custody since September 30, 2013 on a charge of malicious destruction of property, had his matter disposed of on June 11.

Similarly, Troy Roberts, who had been in custody for possession of ganja since June 14, 2014, had his matter disposed. Two other inmates also had their matters disposed of in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate’s Court.

“It ought to be argued that mental illness is an illness like any other and that one’s inevitable fate should not be prison; it should be at an institution that can provide treatment,” Faulkner argued.

In the meantime, Faulkner said the Legal Aid Council would be asking the court to revise the cases of mentally ill people who are being held in custody at the governor general’s pleasure. He explained that those inmates are individuals who have not been sentenced to any specific period of time and are being detained at the court’s request.

“Because they were mentally ill they weren’t sentenced to any specific duration so what we are doing is the application of review for the court to determine a particular sentence,” Faulkner said.

He was, however, unable to provide the number of inmates that fall in that category, but said that his office has nine cases that it will be handling.

Regarding the inmates who have been detained for lengthy periods, Faulkner argued that “if a person who has been mentally ill has been remanded for such length of period which far exceeds a potential sentence, then it should be an easy decision to resolve the matter in their favour even if that resolution requires for them to go a facility for treatment, but not to prison”.

“We are just hoping that the national sensitivity will be more favourable to the mentally ill, and in addition, to caution that people would display, that we ought to ensure that all the rights that citizens enjoy, they too enjoy.”