Forensic mental health services: facts and figures on current provision

Abstract

Forensic mental health services play an important role in providing treatment and accommodation for people diverted from prison or the courts who require secure and specialist mental health treatment. There are more than 3,500 people in medium and high‐secure hospitals who have been directed there by the courts or prison system, and nearly 1,000 new admissions are received each year. Yet, the facts and figures relating to these services are patchy and not widely published. This paper builds on an earlier statistical briefing produced by the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health in 2007, and seeks to provide an up‐to‐date and improved understanding of this area of service provision by presenting the most recent data and figures.