High Secure Sites

Who would be sent to a high secure unit?

A candidate for the DSPD High Secure units can be admitted for treatment if assessment confirms that:

• He is more likely than not to commit an offence that might be expected to lead to serious physical or psychological harm from which the victim would find it difficult or impossible to recover; and
• He has a severe personality disorder; and
• There is a link between the disorder and the risk of offending.
• As demand for the pilot places will exceed supply this means that:
• Available places are allocated on the basis of priority.
• Treatment services are structured and focused around facilitating progression through reducing risk.
• Viable through-care services are developed to facilitate movement on from DSPD units, both for those that benefit from treatment and for those who do not.

It is expected that the majority of referrals will be prisoners (mostly Category A or B) from within high secure prisons.

Where are the units located?

The original commitment by the Government in its 2001 Manifesto undertook to provide 300 new high secure DSPD places. The capacity has been shared between high secure hospitals and high secure prisons as follows:

• High Secure Hospitals
  Broadmoor — 70 places, but currently restricted to 48
  Rampton — 70 places
• High Secure Prisons
  HMP Frankland — 80 places, rising to 86 during the Spring of 2009
  HMP Whitemoor — 70 places

Who goes where?

Each of the high secure units will take broadly similar groups based on the admissions criteria, but there may be instances where (say) one of the high secure hospitals is a more appropriate location than either of the high secure prisons. Where someone goes is partly determined geographically (Rampton and Frankland mainly take people from the Northern half of England and Wales, and Broadmoor and Whitemoor from the South) and partly by a case by case consideration of what would be best for the individual. This will be influenced by whether:

• The individual has mental health treatment needs that can be met in a hospital environment.
• An individual is near the end of their sentence and is likely to require continued detention under mental health legislation in order to complete treatment.

In the latter case, every effort is made to identify the prisoner as at an early stage as possible.

The units undertake four main activities:

1. Consideration of referrals for any person that might meet the DSPD criteria.
2. Undertaking assessments to establish whether an individual referred to DSPD services meets the entry criteria, to identify their treatment needs and to inform the development of a care programme and to facilitate the measurement of change.
3. Developing and delivering treatments that aims to address and reduce the risk of serious offending presented by patients/prisoners. Each unit has developed its own range of interventions offered based on evidence of what may be effective.
4. Evaluating through research how effective the interventions have proved to be with this high-risk offender group.

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