BME communities, mental health and criminal justice

A new briefing published by the Centre for Mental Health’s Bradley Commission has found that community groups are key to engaging BME groups that are disproportionately represented both in mental health care and in the criminal justice system.

The majority of BME communities are over-represented at all stages of the criminal justice process, and make up 25 percent of the prison population yet just 11 percent of the general population. And those BME communities are also more likely to be diagnosed with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, than their white counterparts.

A new independent Commission, chaired by Rt Hon Lord Bradley, is carrying out a five-year-on review of the Bradley Report, which looked at how to support people with mental health problems or learning disabilities in the criminal justice system. The Commission is reviewing the progress made in achieving the recommendations made in the Bradley Report and examining how some of the recommendations can be implemented following the major changes that have taken place in health and criminal justice services since 2009.

The first report from the Commission, entitled BME communities, mental health and criminal justice, looks in detail at this issue and gives examples of local services that are making a difference.

The Commission’s report found that it is overwhelmingly the links between the criminal justice system and community-based groups that are most essential to ensure people from BME communities are offered effective mental health support in the justice system. While the Commission discovered some services making excellent progress in this area, they found that there is a lot of room for other services and commissioners to build on such examples of good practice.

Chaired by Lord Bradley, the Bradley Commission will focus on areas that were under-developed in the Bradley Report. These include the needs of BME communities, young adults in transition and those with personality disorder as a part of multiple and complex needs. It will also examine how some of the report’s recommendations can be implemented following the major changes that have taken place in health and criminal justice services since 2009.

The Commission, which will publish its final full report in 2014, is made up of:

  • Rt Hon Lord Bradley of Withington, PC
  • Eric Allison - Prisons Correspondent, The Guardian
  • Chief Constable Simon Cole - ACPO lead for Mental Health and Disability
  • Sean Duggan - Chief Executive of Centre for Mental Health
  • Lady Edwina Grosvenor
  • John Lock JP - Council Member, Magistrates Association
  • Gen the Lord Ramsbotham, GCB, CBE - former Chief Inspector of Prisons
  • Jenny Talbot OBE - Care Not Custody Director, Prison Reform Trust.

To download the BME communities, mental health and criminal justice briefing visit www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/pdfs/Bradley_Commission_briefing1_BME.pdf.

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