Table 3 Effect of the custody environment and the people therein
FIELD OBSERVATIONS “I spoke to the nurse regarding referrals to the local mental health services. He seemed rather vague about the referral criteria, and about what they would do when the local services would not see a detainee.” (Field note in custody para 4: 25 May 2012) | |
STAFF INTERVIEWS “You could be dealing with a dozen active prisoners […] standing there staring at you, waiting [...] you just want to rush through the risk assessment just to get them out of the way. Time is the most crucial thing […] you can’t rush through it and tick lots of ‘YESes or NOs’ just by looking at them. Sometimes even the most straightforward question can take ages.” (Male CO2) “Ideally you should, in your formal handover, not only talk about the offence […] but also their risk assessment […] It should be formal, but generally, because it’s the end of your shift, you want to go.” (Male CO3) “Some people just will not cooperate no matter how much you’re trying to help them […] Others are so drunk [that] they don’t know where they are.” (Male CO2) “[Detainees] aren’t particularly forthcoming, even if it puts themselves at risk […] So you get people sitting in cells [who are] in life threatening situations” (Male nurse 1) “You’ve got constant communication with a nurse and people’s health can change rapidly. They [can] access to some information [or] previous records etcetera whilst we could be booking in the next person. They can actually say ‘do you know what Sarge, I think it might be this as well’ so you’ve got an ongoing continual assessment [with the nurse there]…it’s a massive difference.” (Male CO1) “One of the biggest issues we do have is people not being completely honest with us. If we got access for example to their GP records, we can verify [what they tell us] very quickly …” (Male nurse 1) “[Other places] have got mental health nurses. The mental health nurses decide whether to call out the crisis team or not. [Here] we don’t have mental health nurses; it’s either us or the Crisis Team.” (Female nurse 1) “Sometimes a custody suite is not the best place for an individual to be. There are probably other ways in which they could be dealt with. Not everybody needs to be arrested” (Female CO1) | |
DETAINEE COMMENTS “They should ask you about your health in a more discreet fashion. They should check you into your cell and then ask you in private. People would talk more then.” (Female Detainee 202) |