Recommendation 77: Measures for mentally disordered prisoners on wings

The measures which should be taken to minimise the risk which a mentally disordered prisoner on ordinary location poses to staff and other inmates includes: • not placing such a prisoner in a shared cell • if such a prisoner is to share a cell, carefully selecting their cellmate • ensuring that, whatever difficulties there may be in operating a proper personal officer scheme, such a prisoner has a personal officer who is fully aware of their background and who makes a particular effort to get to know them and keeps an eye on their state of mind • checking the correspondence and searching the cell of such a prisoner more frequently and carefully than would otherwise have been the case • ensuring, again regardless of the difficulties which might be faced in providing a good regime for all prisoners in the establishment, that such a prisoner is appropriately occupied with, for example, work, education or offending behaviour programmes • keeping a closer watch over material such as films, to which such a prisoner has access, and exercising control over their suitability • checking on NOMIS or with the Security Department about the existence of any useful intelligence about such a prisoner and what is known about their previous behaviour in prison.