If This Savage Refuses Medical Treatment, Then Let Him, Who Cares?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4381150/Fury-Lee-Rigby-killer-transferred-Broadmoor.html

[aelmpvw]

i'd like to know why it costs a quarter of a million pounds to keep someone in broadmoor for a year?

[andy-hughes]

ael - // i'd like to know why it costs a quarter of a million pounds to keep someone in broadmoor for a year? //

The media can concoct this arbitrary figure by various meaningless methods -

as an example, say there are a team of ten psychiatrists who may be on ward that includes a patient. If you calculate their combined salaries for a year, you can easily come up with a massive amount, and then say that is what it costs to treat a specific patient.

It doesn't mean that the amount actually reflects the cost to the tax payer, but it makes wonderful headlines because the public is routinely horrified at the costs incurred by Broadmoor inmates as opposed to standard prison inmates.

[wolf63]

I don't understand why they can't force him to take his medication. They can do it in psychiatric hospitals so why not a prison.

[andy-hughes]

AOG - A set sentence for Mr. Adebowale is the proscribed punishment for his crime.

Although human nature dictates that his refusal of medication is his own doing, and he should be made to suffer the consequences, that is not how the law works.

Denial of proper medical care is not appropriate, and to allow in on the basis that he 'deserves it' starts us off on a slippery slope that ends when he is suspended by his thumbs for twenty-three hours a day.

Again, there is an argument that this is no more - and indeed probably less - than he deserves, but again this is not how the legal system in a civilised society operates.

[douglas9401]

Funny old game, yer mental illness.
Here's hoping he meets somebody even more lunatic than himself one dark night then the bills can stop.

[andy-hughes]

wolf63 - //I don't understand why they can't force him to take his medication. They can do it in psychiatric hospitals so why not a prison. //

Hospitals have qualified staff to administer medication by force - prisons do not.

Transferring Mr Adebowale to Broadmoor may well see his medication administered by force - and that is probably one of the reasons for his transfer.

[jackthehat]

Similarly, Ian Brady is 'hospitalised' in order to ensure he is fed/treated; there are different rules for secure mental hospitals and prisons.
It is unlikely that it costs more to keep Adebowale in Broadmoor than it would in a regular HMP.

[wolf63]

Mental health problems are badly understood by those who do not suffer from them.

I have Manic Depression and am unable to work any more. If the illness doesn't screw your brain up then the medication (in my case Lithium) does.

This guy may be mad, he may be bad and even a bit of both.

[ChillDoubt]

i'd like to know why it costs a quarter of a million pounds to keep someone in broadmoor for a year?
------------
Exactly. Year on year we have cuts in real terms to public spending and the NHS. It should be the same for the Prison Service and judicial system.
With the reintroduction of the death penalty for this vermin(and the likes of Roy Whiting, Ian Huntley etc) the savings would be immense.
One can but hope....

[emmie]

AH
no its not a game, i have been in a mental health hospital and its not remotely funny.
They do administer tablets and you have no choice but to take them.

as to this piece of scum i would have let him rot in prison but that is not my call to make.

[ChillDoubt]

If you want to tell me you are, or have been a sufferer, then I will be delighted to withdraw my observation - but I stand by what I said - it is not a 'game'.
--------
I'd guess that depends on whether you're an inmate or not, as he was compos mentis when he converted to Islam and subsequently ran someone over, after which he attempted to decapitate him.