Are the Mentally Ill being Criminalised?: Admission of Prisoners to Psychiatric Hospitals before and after the 1986 Mental Health Act (Vic) *

Abstract

Recent changes in mental health legislation both in Australia and overseas provide more stringent criteria for the involuntary hospitalisation of the mentally ill. A possible result of this is that the mentally ill are being ‘criminalised’, reaching hospital only after their bizarre behaviour brings them to the attention of the criminal justice system. This study of prisoners admitted to mental hospitals before and after the introduction of the 1986 Mental Health Act (Vic) found little evidence to support this hypothesis. The expected rise in the numbers of such admissions was paralleled by a significant increase in the overall prison population and the predicted increase in the proportion of minor offenders did not occur. The criminalisation hypothesis also fails to account for other complex interactions found between the mental health and prison systems. Although many of the prisoners in this study were probably seriously mentally ill when initially imprisoned, an equally large group, comprising a disproportionate number of female prisoners, were probably being ‘medicalised’: hospital admission being merely another way for the prison to manage their ‘unruly’ behaviour.