Laut einer randomisierten, kontrollierten Studie mit 300 britischen Gefangenen könnte eine psychiatrische Behandlung schwerer Straftäter den Schaden für die Gesellschaft verringern und Geld sparen
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/new-study-finds-mental-health-treatment-for-serious-offenders-could-reduce-harm-to-society-and-save-money
19 Kommentare
>The randomised controlled trial ran across UK prisons and probation services and involved more than 300 prisoners. They were split at random into two groups, one getting the mental health intervention alongside probation support, the other receiving probation support on its own.
>
>The research team carried out the study through structured interviews and a self-reported questionnaire recording use of services providing accommodation, education, employment and training. Clinicians and people with lived experience of prison and probation services helped to develop research questions to ensure they were appropriate and robust.
>
>Researchers assessed the outcomes of the trial 24 months after the participants had been allocated to each group. They also evaluated the economic costs to society, incorporating costs to healthcare and the criminal justice system and the wider impact of offending. They found that the group who had received the mental health intervention and probation were associated with reduced costs and lower aggression which would give potential cost savings of approximately £93 per person compared to the current probation service provision.
[Cost-effectiveness of a mentalisation-based treatment for antisocial personality disorder in males convicted of an offence on community probation in England and Wales: Multicentre, assessor-blind randomised controlled trial | PLOS One](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0352865)
This is very unsurprising. A large number of criminals have a diagnosable mental illness. People prefer not to think about it, but that’s usually linked to their behavior. Studies vary, but some estimates put around 50% have a Cluster B disorder of some sort, plus a miriad of others.
The broad definition of how mental illness „excuses“ crime is usually very narrow. Often in the „Truly psychotic episode“ and total loss of touch with reality level.
The reality is that if we actually funded a significant effort to make them less ill, the very likely outcome would be they would commit less crimes.
I mean this is a neat study I suppose, but ultimately not very useful considering that, in many societies, the majority of citizens view prison not as a means to rehabilitate offenders, but solely to punish them. A crab bucket mentality will result in many people reacting to a proposal such as this by saying something along the lines of „Why should prisoners get free mental health care but not me?“
Mental health treatment is very costly, not very effective and already out of reach for law abiding people who need the help. Capital punishment is cheap and 100% effective at keeping our communities safe and eliminating recidivism.
How much money could a rope save?
I’d go further and say that better and more cohesive mental health provision generally would probably also help wider areas than just reducing reoffending in serious offenders. There’s also street homelessness, substance dependency and others, and yet, perversely, mental health services are amongst the first to feel budget squeezes in public health.
You mean rehabilitation leads to lower recidivism??? Who could have guessed?
Too bad US corporations are make too much money leasing out their prison slave labor to ever care about rehabilitation.
Oh god when did we stop funding prison therapy services?
long acting injection antipsychotics can help some people in bad moments, we need to speak about how heavy the physical and psychological effects are. Calling them just ‚treatments‘ doesn’t always show the reality for patients who feel it like a punishment because of severe, long-lasting devasting side effects.
So Because these injections are made to release slowly in the body, the drug stays much longer than people think. Depending on person’s metabolism, clearing the medication and recovering normal brain balance can take a very long time sometime 18 months or more after just one month injection.
When patients complain about side effects like emotional numbness or terrible restlessness long after the injection, their experiences should be listened. We need to respect how hard the recovery actually is.
But if we open asylums how will we use their cheap labour for profit?
Rehabilitation vs largely strictly punishment.
How effective is mental health treatment?
And yet, the conservatives insist they deserve punishment.
Well since over 90 percent of those incarcerated have a mental illness…
A robust, well designed and efficient mental health care system, among other things, could save so many others from going to prison in the first place.
prison isn’t about rehabilitation is about exacting legalized revenge on the criminal. the UK with this study are trying to deny the victim their justified revenge
We can’t have this work in the US. We can get prisoners to work for peanuts to our buddies’ companies and get that sweet kickback down the line.
Treating mental health upfront makes total sense, we see these same patterns playing out in regular folks all the time.
Wow shocker. But also, for profit prisons wouldn’t be able to profit off of legal slave labor.