I imagine Judge Peter Jacobs will be listening with special interest today when controversial plans to allow mentally ill people to be detained against their will are discussed in the Commons.

Last week he was forced to jail a mentally ill man because there was no alternative available in the community care system.

He was so incensed, that he asked Home Office officials to explain why, at a time when our prisons are full, proper systems of care in the community were not in place.

But by the end of last week, and ten days later, the frustrated judge was still waiting for a response.

He had no choice but to jail David Millward, 47, of no fixed abode, to 12 months, stating:

“I repeat that in this case there is a diagnosis of mental illness which the psychiatrists say does not warrant detention in hospital. Any prison sentence I pass cannot be indeterminate and nobody has provided any alternative.

“This is ironic at a time when prisons are full and concern is expressed in some quarters about the presence of people in your condition in prison.�

Millward had admitted a third breach of a restraining order preventing him from entering the area where his mother lives, near King’s Lynn, Norfolk, or from visiting her home.

He has in the past threatened to kill his mother and police have been called out on a regular basis as he frightens her, the mere thought of him being there frightens her. He has previously been detained under the Mental Health Act, but his condition has since deteriorated even further.

Millward has been a manic depressive for 25 years and during elevated moods his behaviour is destructive. In addition, he has a primary personality disorder which is untreatable.

Judge Jacobs described his frustration:

“This defendant should take his medication under a regime which would ensure he takes it. If I turn him out, his mother is at the end of her tether and has had enough. If I turn somebody out and they re-offend, I am then criticised for letting them out. I am not prepared to release him unless there is a regime in place.

“This is a classic example of how the system is failing. The system does not provide proper care in the community. If you are going to have care in the community, you must have proper residential care for people like him.

“He should not be in prison, but no-one comes up with any alternative. Every year I have a couple of dozen such cases like this and I say the same things and nothing ever happens.”

Judge Jacobs believes Millward should be treated in semi-secure accommodation with an alcohol ban in place, backed up by the threat of jail.

I do feel sympathy for these sick people, they cannot help the way they were born, and their families must feel so helpless and desperately sad that they cannot help their own kith and kin. Mental illness is a terrible cross to bear, those afflicted do not conform and need support.

Why has the Home Office not responded to the judge, how can these mentally ill criminals be helped if there is nowhere suitable for them to go?