Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 6 December 2022

Joint Committee On Health

People Detained in Secure Forensic Mental Health Facilities: Discussion

Photo of Gino KennyGino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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My final question is on recovery. Obviously, if people are in this institute or facility, recovery and rehabilitation is key to reform. There is a gravity to why people are incarcerated in the first place. I presume there is a full spectrum of that from relatively minor crimes to crimes that would be of a very serious nature.

On recovery, if somebody commits the most serious crimes of murder and so forth, what are the terms of recovery? If somebody commits a murder, they spend at least ten to 15 years in prison or are in jail forever. In situations where somebody is deemed unfit for trial, what is the recovery basis? Does that person then realise that were not of sound mind when they committed that crime but they are now complete compos mentis? Where does that paradigm end and begin in relation to that person who may not have been of sound mind when they committed that crime but now with doctors and so forth they have been deemed relatively fully recovered and of sound mind? I know everybody is different.