Over 200 mentally-ill children clapped into prison in Britain

The British Police has imprisoned more than 200 mentally-ill children for the last year.

According to the 136 section of the Mental Health Act, police forces can detain children for up to 72 hours in case there is no place in hospitals and psychiatric units for them.

Over 202 sick children under the age of 18 years old were imprisoned despite the fact that they posed no threat to the public, the Independent report says. Some of them are as young as 12 years old.

27 police departments out of 43 throughout England and Wales claimed to have detained mentally-ill children.

"Nothing could be more damaging to the mental health of a young person than to be left isolated, unprotected and feeling they have done wrong, when they are suffering from mental illness. They are afraid, sometimes they are handcuffed, they have no means of contacting people and they are put into a cell alongside people who may be drunk or violent," said the chief executive of the mental health charity SANE, Marjorie Wallace.

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