A network of regional secure units should be set up by the health service to house such people in therapeutic conditions, says the National Advisory Council of Prison Boards of Visitors.

"These people need treatment, not punishment," said chairman Mary Blackburn.

"The National Health Service must accept its responsibility by providing adequate spaces in regionally secure units.

Incarceration is 'not proper'

"It is not proper to expect the Prison Service to have the responsibility to incarcerate and look after such people."

The most recent study, in 1994, showed two-thirds of adult male remand prisoners had "some form of psychiatric disorder", she said.

The figure rose to 77% for women inmates.

"The situation seems to be getting worse. It may be a spin off from care in the community."

Mrs Blackburn, a member of the Board of Visitors at Risley jail in Cheshire, has raised the problem with the Prison Service and the prisons minister Joyce Quin, and a working group of officials has been set up to investigate.

Boards of visitors are appointed by the Home Secretary to act as independent watchdogs for each of the 135 prisons in England and Wales.