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FORUM on Corrections Research
Research on Mentally-disordered Prisoners
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Several studies have revealed that inmates of Canadian penal institutions suffer from mental disorders
more frequently than the general population. As a result of the deinstitutionalization of mental health
facilities that took place in the 1960's and 1970's it is believed that a large number of these
individuals suffering from mental disorders were recuperated by the criminal justice system. A federal-provincial agreement concluded in 1977 between the Ministry of the Solicitor General and the Ministry of Social Affairs of Quebec entrusted the Montreal Philippe-Pinel Institute with the responsibility to give treatment to mentally-disordered prisoners. The Philippe-Pinel Institute offers three different kinds of clinical services: (1) to identify inmates with mental illnesses; (2) to administer treatment to inmates transferred to the Institute; and (3) to review the rehabilitation factors for these offenders. The research focused on several major objectives: to determine the number of inmates treated at the Philippe-Pinel Institute during a two year period; to study the grounds for their eventual transfer; to re-assess the organizational structure of treatments offered at the Institute; to provide a profile of the treated inmates; and to analyze the nature and effectiveness of treatments. Data collection was done in two steps. The researchers first gathered data on inmates' mental health, criminal, psychological and social backgrounds, and they then focused on information concerning the offenders' stay at the Philippe-Pinel Institute. During the second part of the study, from April 1986 to December 1986, 51 out of 135 inmates apparently suffering from mental disorder were interviewed. There was a period of three to five years between the day the offenders left the Philippe-Pinel Institute and the day they were interviewed. At the time of their admission to the Philippe-Pinel Institute the inmates were an average of 30 years of age; 64% of them had previously been admitted at least once as in-patients in a mental health institution and 20% of them had been in-patients at least three times or more. The patients had an average record of 13 years within a penal institution and of 10 convictions as adult offenders. While 75% of those inmates had been found guilty of non-violent offences, 89% of them had been previously convicted of at least one violent offence. The authors noted that 81 % of the offenders had first stayed in a penal institution before being admitted as in-patients in a mental health institution. The average stay at the Philippe-Pinel Institute was 10.4 months; one-third of the offenders were sent back to penitentiary after having refused treatment; 21 % of them were returned to penitentiary after the clinical team requested it, and another third of the offenders were released. Only 19% of the offenders were able to complete the treatment period. During the three to five year follow-up phase, 50% of the treated offenders were re-admitted as in-patients in a mental health institution most of them at the Philippe-Pinel Institute; 29% of them experienced a relapse into mental health disorder and 18 % had two recurrences or more of the same kind. Fifty-seven percent of the treated offenders were re-admitted at least once as in-patients in a mental health institution during the first 12 months after their dismissal from the Philippe-Pinel Institute. The conclusion reached by the researchers was that it is difficult to determine which inmates are suffering from mental illness within Quebec penitentiaries; one can assume that although they need treatment, several inmates are in fact neglected. Since many of them were transferred to the Philippe-Pinel Institute because they had threatened or disturbed the good order of the penal institution, one can easily imagine that the mentally disordered but quiet inmates were therefore ignored. The study also noted that the offenders who needed treatment in order to modify their psychological and social behaviour did not receive this treatment during their stay at the Philippe Pinel Institute and that few of them were followed-up after they left the Institute. The authors said they hoped that further studies will thoroughly examine the results of their research. Hodgins, S., Cyr, M., Paquet, J., Lamy, P. (1988). Etudes de relance auprès des détenus fédéraux traités en milieu psychiatrique : description des antécédents, du séjour, des rechutes et des recidives. Criminologie, XXI, 2, 27-59. |
