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Original papers: Ian Robbins, James MacKeith, Sophie Davison, Michael Kopelman, Clive Meux, Sumi Ratnam, David Somekh, and Richard Taylor Psychiatric problems of detainees under the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001 Psychiatr Bull 2005; 29: 407-409 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]

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Terrorist detainees - psychiatry or morals?

Simon P Wilson   (9 November 2005)

Terrorist detainees - psychiatry or morals? 9 November 2005
Simon P Wilson, Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist Maudsley Hospital Send letter to journal: Re: Terrorist detainees - psychiatry or morals? simon.wilson{at}slam.nhs.uk Simon P Wilson	Robbins et al. (2005) describe how they found the mental states of a number of men detained in HMP Belmarsh without trial or charge. They all appeared to be experiencing significant levels of psychiatric morbidity. The authors go on to state that this is due to the indefinite nature of their custodial detention, although there is no evidence to support this hypothesis in their paper. This is important subject matter, and one about which psychiatrists have been silent until the authors’ contributions. My concern, however, is that this is really moral philosophy masquerading as psychiatry. What is implied in the paper is that detention without trial or charge is abominable. However, this is a moral argument plain-and- simple that is just obfuscated by discussion of the men’s psychiatric states. It seems to be saying that because these men are unwell and made worse by being in prison, we shouldn’t put them in prison. Given the well- established and striking levels of morbidity in the ordinary prison population, one might think the same argument applied for all prisoners a fortiori. This all seems to miss the point though. I think the situation would be just as abominable even if the authors had shown the men to have become much healthier during their time in custody. Where are the voices of psychiatrists in this moral question about whether imprisonment without trial or charge is right? Are we unable to speak about that without a cloak of pseudo-science? Declaration of interest: I worked as a Clinical Research Fellow in Forensic Psychiatry at HMP Belmarsh between 2001 and 2002. I think that detention without charge or trial is wrong.