Prison being used as the "default" option?
An article on the BBC has suggested that prison is being used as the “default” option for people with mental health problems, when it’s specialist care that’s actually needed.
Chief Inspector of Prisons, Anne Owers, agreed that many people with mental health disorders need not be in prisons, but also agreed that institutions were currently unavailable to provide them with the care they needed. However the report also stressed that any alternative to prison would have to ensure the public was protected too.