Psychiatrists call for health-led care for mentally ill prisoners

Australia's peak psychiatrists' body is calling for major changes to mental health care in NSW prisons, including an end to isolating suicidal prisoners in cells described as safe. Its NSW branch says assessment and support should be led by trained health workers rather than correctional officers.

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists argues that people in crisis need close clinical care and that isolation is a custodial response, not a substitute for treatment. It also wants greater use of diversion into health care for people with severe mental illness who enter the justice system.

The calls follow reporting on 48 NSW coronial inquests since 2015 that identified failures in the care or supervision of people with mental illness. Fourteen involved Indigenous people. Full findings in one continuing inquest have not yet been delivered, so the cases should not be treated as having identical circumstances or completed findings.

Premier Chris Minns has defended the existing system, saying psychiatrists cannot necessarily provide the initial response in every case. Corrective Services says it follows legislative and regulatory requirements to manage people safely and humanely. The proposed transfer of responsibility remains a reform call, not a change already implemented.