A programme costing £60m a year to detain and treat 350 mentally ill offenders is following a ‘political agenda’ with no benefit to society or the detainees, a leading mental health lawyer has warned.

Chairman of the Mental Health Lawyers Association Richard Charlton voiced his concerns as the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health published a damning report on the Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorder (DSPD) programme this week. It found the scheme, which provides intensive therapy for dangerously ill people, diverted £60m annually away from thousands of prisoners with minor and treatable mental health problems, but with no ‘clear evidence of its effectiveness in either improving health or reducing risk’.

The report also found that convergence between the mental health and criminal justice systems had seen a ‘disproportionate’ number of people with mental health problems given indeterminate sentences without enough support to regain their freedom.

Charlton said: ‘The government has bowed to tabloid pressure and followed a political agenda to treat DSPD, rather than the army of mentally ill offenders who spend their lives yo-yoing in and out of prison.’

A Department of Health spokesman said the mental health and criminal justice agencies were working together to reduce reoffending.