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Prisoners

Answer

The answer to question (ii) is information held by the Department for Health and Social Care. We can provide information from individuals in prison as, at 30 June 2021, who have a detailed assessment (Layer 3) completed on the Offender Assessment System (OASys). Individuals have been excluded where there is missing data for any of the assessment items required to answer questions (i) and (iii) to (xii). Definitions used for specific needs areas are given below.

Numbers

Issue(s)	Count - Female	Count - Male
Mental health issues	628	7,555
Learning disabilities	35	889
Physical disabilities	163	3,391
Unemployment histories	783	15,590
Housing issues or homeless	1,521	34,705
Relationship difficulties	1,841	40,614
Social isolation	298	5,058
Substance misuse	1,341	31,267
Financial issues	1,299	35,680
Physical or psychological trauma	1,694	21,883
Two or more issues	1,973	47,050
Number of prisoners with full assessment	2,090	55,564

Proportions

Issue(s)	Proportion - Female	Proportion - Male
Mental health issues	30%	14%
Learning disabilities	2%	2%
Physical disabilities	8%	6%
Unemployment histories	37%	28%
Housing issues or homeless	73%	62%
Relationship difficulties	88%	73%
Social isolation	14%	9%
Substance misuse	64%	56%
Financial issues	62%	64%
Physical or psychological trauma	81%	39%
Two or more issues	94%	85%

Definitions used

Item (i), mental health issues: OASys reports significant difficulties (score of 2) on question 10.2 psychological problems and/or question 10.6 psychiatric problems.

Item (iii), a learning disability: the disabilities listed on Delius include a learning disability.

Item (iv), a physical disability: the disabilities listed on Delius include hearing difficulties, a progressive condition, reduced mobility, reduced physical capacity, severe disfigurement, speech impairment or visual impairment.

Item (v), unemployment histories: OASys reports significant difficulties (score of 2) on question 4.3 employment history.

Item (vi), housing issues or are homeless: OASys reports a criminogenic need in the accommodation section.

Item (viii), social isolation: OASys reports significant difficulties (score of 2) on question 10.3 social isolation.

Item (ix), financial issues: OASys reports that the assessor judges financial issues to be linked to “risk of serious harm, risks to the individual and other risks” and/or linked to offending behaviour.

Item (x), substance misuse issues: OASys reports a criminogenic need in the drug misuse and/or alcohol misuse sections.

Item (xi), experienced physical, psychological or social trauma: OASys reports that any of the following were present – question 2.10, current offence disinhibited by a traumatic life event; significant difficulties (score of 2) on question 6.3, experience of childhood; question 6.7, victim of domestic violence, and question 10.7, history of severe head injuries, fits, periods of unconsciousness.

Item (xii) checks how many of (i) and (iii) to (xi) are present, and is counted as present if two or more of these ten items are present.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

16886

Session

2022-23

Subjects

Prisoners

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk