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Prisoners are supposed to receive health care that is equivalent to that provided in the community. There is a high prevalence of mental ill health in prisons, and prisoners tend to have complex needs. Prison mental health care has received only limited attention until recently. The impact of the new in ‐reach teams appears to have been positive, but primary mental health care is weak across the prison estate and the vast majority of prisoners with mental health problems still receive little or no service. The development of prison mental health care has not been evidence‐based and there has been no policy implementation guidance that compares to that provided for reforms in services for the wider community. There is no model for prison mental health care and the role of the prison mental health practitioner is not well defined, nor is the health care workforce prepared for the task.

An interview in which Professor Louis Appleby, CBE, reflects on his time as National Director for Mental Health and in particular the reforms to services for people with concurrent mental health and substance misuse problems.

This paper will review the estimated prevalence of ‘dual diagnosis’ among young offenders, briefly review the gaps in service and look at what research tells us about what works best with young people. The group this paper focuses on in the main are those 18 years of age and under and who have come into contact with the criminal justice system and have dual diagnosis. At times, however, the authors draw from a wider literature because working with young dual‐diagnosed offenders is a relatively new field.

As one might expect after the formation of a new government, there has been a considerable amount of activity on the policy front in recent months, with a range of green and white papers and other consultations. In this article, we summarise just four areas of policy development that will primarily impact in England: the drug strategy, the mental health strategy, the public health White Paper and the Breaking the Cycle green paper on sentencing and rehabilitation.

Around 90 per cent of offenders have a mental health problem, personality disorder or addiction, and most have two or more such problems. One of the most effective ways of preventing reoffending and improving the life chances of an offender is through achieving and maintaining employment, however very few people leaving prison will have employment on release from prison. This paper aims to focus on these issues.

The paper describes an investigation conducted by the Centre for Mental Health into employment opportunities for offenders with mental health problems on release from prison.

The investigation revealed that, although offenders with mental health problems are less likely than other prisoners to be included in employment programmes, evidenced‐based approaches such as individual placement and support offer huge potential. The investigation identified five principles for employment programmes supporting this group: employers should play an instrumental role in creating opportunities; recruitment should be pragmatic, based on attitude and “character” rather than qualifications or health status; support should be offered to employees and their employers/managers for as long as they need it; opportunities for “pre‐ employment” and “in work” skills development should be linked to real employment opportunities; and criminal justice and other statutory agencies should facilitate effective pathways to real work and skills development.

There is a need to develop more employment programmes for offenders with mental health problems that incorporate evidenced‐based approaches such as individual placement and support, and a number of key principles identified in this investigation.

The investigation that this paper describes is the first to consider as its main focus evidence‐based employment interventions for people with mental health problems leaving prison or engaged with other parts of the criminal justice system.

There has been a move towards the implementation of digital/e-health interventions for some time. Digital/e-health interventions have demonstrable efficacy in increasing individual empowerment, providing timely access to psychological interventions for those experiencing mental ill-health and improving outcomes for those using them. This study aims to determine the efficacy of digital/e-health interventions for individuals detained in prison who experience mental ill-health.

A systematic search of five academic databases – CINAHL, ASSIA, PsycINFO, Embase and Medline – was completed in December 2020 and updated in February 2022. The review was guided by the Whittemore and Knafl (2005) framework for integrative reviews. A total of 6,255 studies were returned and screened by title and abstract. A full-text screening of nine (n = 9) studies was conducted.

No study met the inclusion criteria for the clinical efficacy of digital/e-health interventions in a prison setting. Subsequently, a review of the literature that made it to the full-text review stage was conducted, and gaps in the literature were identified to inform policy, practice and future research.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first integrative review conducted on the efficacy of digital/e-health interventions for mental ill-health in prison settings.