ABSTRACT

Historically, responsibility for protecting the public from the dangerous mentally ill has been placed upon the shoulders of psychiatry. The burden of public protection was relieved with Fallon’s recommendation for abolition of hospital orders in favour of penal sentencing (Fallon et al., 1999) and the introduction (Criminal Justice Act 2003) of ‘renewable’ indeterminate sentences for dangerous offenders whose release is dependent on the level of risk of sexual and/or violent re-offending posed (Eastman, 1999). Whilst the future for the psychiatrist had become uncertain, the prison officer was becoming increasingly responsible for dealing with those classified as dangerous and severely personality disordered (a non-diagnostic label for those contained within specialist services), with the implementation of Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorder Units at HMP Whitemoor and HMP Frankland.