Background
Rampton Hospital houses about 400 patients who have been detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 under one of these classifications:
- Mental illness
- Psychopathic (personality) disorder
- (Severe) mental impairment, which is the legal term for what would now be called a learning disability.
Rampton Hospital has a staff of about 2000 and provides the national services for patients with a learning disability, women and deaf men requiring high security care. It also provides services for men suffering from mental illness and personality disorder. The hospital has a Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorder Unit opened in 2004 as part of a national DSPD pilot, the Peaks Unit, which is the only remaining DSPD unit in a hospital setting in Britain.
About a quarter of the patients have had no significant contact with the criminal justice system, but have been detained under the Mental Health Act and are considered to require treatment in conditions of high security owing to their "dangerous, violent or criminal propensities". Others have been convicted of an offence by the courts and either ordered to be detained in hospital or subsequently transferred there from prison. Among admissions criteria is the requirement that patients must present a "grave and immediate danger" to the public.
Read more about this topic: Rampton Secure Hospital
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