Government still ignores rights of mentally ill

The government's failure to establish the Criminal Law (Mental Health) Review Board means that mentally ill people will be detained indefinitely if arrested. By Erik Salholm and Emma Browne

Mentally ill people can be detained indefinitely without review because of the government's failure to set up a review board under the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act. This indefinite detention could breach their constitutional rights.

Under the act, the courts, the Garda Síochána and the prison service can order people charged with a criminal offence and suspected of being mentally ill to be detained at a psychiatric institution for assessment. These detentions are then to be assessed by the Criminal Law (Mental Health) Review Board every six months. A person cannot be tried for an offence until the board has given a direction under this assessment. At present there is no board so persons detained under the act face indefinite detention.

To establish the board, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform has to make an order. The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform said that arrangements for the review board to be set up are being finalised and that it should be established in the coming months.

A man who has been detained under the act is now taking a case against Dundrum Mental Hospital, arguing that his detention breaches his constitutional rights since there is no review board to assess him.

In July, gardaí arrested the man in Dublin for trespassing in a block of flats. They certified that he was unfit to plead – under Section 4 of the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act – and remanded him to the Central Mental Hospital.

The man, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, was detained in Dundrum for a two-week assessment. He argues that the lack of a board to review his detention breaches his constitutional right under Article 40.4 of the Constitution which says that "no citizen shall be deprived of his personal liberty save in accordance with law".

The case began in the High Court on 15 September and has currently been adjourned until 20 September.

Another concern about the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act is a shortage of beds for people detained under the act. The act requires people detained under it to be provided with acute beds. A leading psychiatrist, who did not wish to be named, said the healthcare system cannot meet the demands of the Insanity Act. "Dundrum is already under strain. It is having to accommodate patients eligible for review under the Insanity Act at the expense of other patients."

Dundrum currently has two beds set aside for assessing people remanded under the new legislation. According to the Report of the Inspector of Mental Hospitals for 2005, there are now fewer than 4,000 acute beds in the country, compared with over 11,000, in 1987.

If the case against the Dundrum Mental Hospital is successful, other detentions under the act could be struck out. The man's solicitor said that she is representing four other people who are affected by the legislation in the same way.

Pictured: The Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum