Bermuda will not be getting a specialist secure psychiatric unit within Westgate, despite calls for one due to the Lorenzo Robinson case.

However, an extra psychologist has been hired to help mentally ill inmates, who make up 12 to 15 percent of Bermuda's prison population.

Minister of Labour, Home Affairs and Housing David Burch announced the news during the Senate budget debate on the prison service.

Mr. Robinson, a 28-year-old paranoid schizophrenic, committed suicide in Westgate in July 2008. He'd battled for six years to secure the specialist treatment experts said he needed, having been incarcerated on the grounds of insanity after stabbing an American tourist in the back with a six-inch blade on Front Street in 2002.

The finding of insanity was based on the evidence of top UK psychiatrist Frank Kelly, who recommended that Mr. Robinson be confined in a "forensic psychiatric unit" in a hospital for the criminally insane.

He noted that Bermuda did not have such unit, so recommended he be sent overseas for treatment.

However, Mr. Robinson was not sent overseas and no unit was built. Instead, he remained at Westgate until March 2008 when he appealed to Chief Justice Richard Ground.

The top judge backed his plea for overseas help, branding the conditions at Westgate as unsuitable for his needs and at times disturbing.

He also noted evidence from Dr. Saratchandra, head of psychiatry at the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute, that the hospital which is Bermuda's primary psychiatric facility does not have a secure long-term unit.

The doctor said while MAWI does have Somers Annexe, which is locked and has round-the-clock medical supervision, it is essentially a 'psychiatric ICU', intended for the short-term assessment and treatment of acute cases, and not suitable for the long-term detention of a high risk patient.

However, the Chief Justice said the allocation of resources to build a secure psychiatric facility was a matter for the political will of the Government of the day, and he could not trespass into policy areas by ordering one to be built. Mr. Robinson remained in custody at Westgate until his death four months later, when he hanged himself using bedsheets in his cell.

After the inquest into his suicide, the victim's mother, Dedona Grant, told The Royal Gazette that the call for a specialist psychiatric unit had been vetoed by Government. Shadow Minister of Public Safety Michael Dunkley said he hoped the authorities would continue to look into the idea.

During the budget debate on the prison service yesterday, UBP Senator Suzann Roberts-Holshouser asked if any consideration had been given to establishing a specialist psychiatric unit within Westgate.

Sen. Burch replied that said two studies had been commissioned on the topic last year. Both concluded that due to Bermuda's small size, "we should really use the psychiatric facility we already have".

To this end, he said a Memorandum of Understanding had been signed last summer with the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute to enable better provision of psychiatric help for Bermuda's prison population of which around 35 to 40 prisoners are in need of help at any given time.

He noted that there had been delays of weeks before prisoners got the treatment they needed, but now they are accessing it in a timely manner, with transfers from Westgate to MAWI now being done within 24 hours.

However, he did not mention what facilities are in place for prisoners such as Mr. Robinson in need of long-term secure care.