More mental institutions should be built to reduce strain on the Prison Service, the chief inspector has warned.

In her annual report published on Tuesday, Anne Owers insisted that the costs of detaining mentally ill offenders should rest with the Department of Health and not the Home Office.

Forum Response: SANE

Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of SANE, said: "Mentally ill people in prison have become the latest political football between the Home Office and the Health Department, neither wanting to accept the expense and responsibility for some of Britain's most difficult and vulnerable people.

"Since demolishing over 108 psychiatric hospitals and losing 50,000 beds, there is a huge shortage of places where people can receive care and treatment. In Britain as in America, the prisons have filled up with people who would otherwise be in hospital.

"As the prisons watchdog says, community care has failed mentally ill people in custody, as it has many others who, if they received psychiatric help before committing a crime, would not end up in jail.

"We challenge Mr Phil Wheatley, Director General of Prison Services, to give us evidence that prisoners are getting psychiatric care from the NHS. Our experience is that they are not, as is borne out by the unacceptably high rates of suicide and self harm."

Forum Response: Depression Alliance

Jim Thomson, chief executive of Depression Alliance, told ePolitix.com: "It is entirely unacceptable that one in four women in prison, for example,are self-harming, and that just last week, six people in prisons in this country took their own lives.

"Typically, we heard through the media about just one - Dr Harold Shipman. We believe that every life matters and that every death in custody is a failure and indictment of the prison system.

"It is encouraging to hear Anne Owers talk about improvements and we look forward to hearing the detail of how she intends to provide appropriatetreatment both for prisoners entering the system with mental health problems and for those in whom the system causes mental health problems."