Call for ban on locking up people suffering mental health crises in police cells

Police cells should no longer be used to detain people suffering mental health crises, a charity has said.

Mental health charity Mind said that a move away from using police lock-ups as “places of safety” for those in a crisis was achievable as some police forces did not do so once last year.

In February, the Home Office announced that cells would only be available to detain people having mental health crises in “exceptional circumstances” under new laws.

The Policing and Crime Bill, which is making its way through the House of Lords, will also ban using cells for under-16s who are suicidal, self-harming or in psychosis.

But Mind is calling for the ban to be extended to adults, too.

Figures from the National Police Chiefs’ Council show that forces in Merseyside and Hertfordshire did not use section 136 of the Mental Health Act to detain people in crisis in cells at all during 2015/16.

But other forces across England and Wales used it more than 250 times.

In total, there were 2,100 instances of adults being held in police cells in England and Wales in 2015/16, less than half the 4,537 held in 2014/15.

Mind chief executive Paul Farmer said: “When you’re in a mental health crisis, you may become frustrated, frightened and extremely distressed.

“Your behaviour could be perceived as aggressive and threatening to others, but you desperately need support and compassion.

“Being held in a police cell and effectively treated like a criminal only makes things worse. Now is the moment to ban this damaging practice once and for all.

“In many parts of the country, police forces are showing us what is possible. If Merseyside and Hertfordshire police forces can entirely avoid detaining vulnerable people in police cells, so can the rest of England and Wales.

“We’re urgently calling on the Government and Welsh Assembly to ban the use of police cells for everyone – both adults and children – in a mental health crisis.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “We are committed to ensuring those in mental health crisis get compassionate care – and that no one is taken to a cell when they have committed no crime and solely because there is no alternative safe place for them. Earlier this year, we announced a £15 million fund for projects across England which will see new or refurbished health-based places of safety established.

“Significant progress has been made by the police and health partners in halving the use of police cells for those in mental health crisis over the last year. But there is still more work to be done. Changes to legislation through the Policing and Crime Bill will ban the use of police cells for under 18s in mental health crisis, and ensure they can only be used as a place of safety for adults in genuinely exceptional circumstances.”

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