Dis Life: '85% of prison inmates are neurodivergent - no one seems to care'

23 August 2023 , 13:59

989     0

Half of UK prisoners could have some sort of neurodiverse condition (Image: WalesOnline/Rob Browne)

City of London police force is now screening people in custody for neurodivergence. In 2016, Dame Sally Coates produced a report, Unlocking Potential, for the Government, which estimated a figure of half of UK prisoners having some sort of neurodiverse condition, such as autism or ADHD. Sarah Templeton, who has devised the screening checklist for the force, thinks the figure could be much higher – as high as 85%.

The scheme is designed to identify undiagnosed conditions and according to the Chief Inspector of the force, Anna Rice, to ensure that those with the conditions are supported and processed fairly. The force already has a mental health checklist. Aren’t those figures astonishing? 85% of people in prison may be neurodiverse. Who may not fit societal norms, and may lack capability to behave in a standardised way.

Without research into who has what conditions and what crimes have been committed, doesn’t that speak volumes about how the legal system is a blunt instrument that may well have little understanding of how to practically apply the Equality Act and put in place rulings which don’t cause inmates to then spiral into worse states of being.

Think about how neurodiverse people are failed: from cradle, with diagnoses taking years (we’re up to a quarter of a million people who will be waiting until sometime next year for a diagnosis). Through childhood, where schools are set up for neurotypical children, without adequate decompression spaces, without staff having remotely adequate training in how to deal with neurodiverse kids, and having to deal with up to a quarter of kids who need bespoke support in classrooms without any of that support being available (don’t get me started again on the meagre 4% of kids who need it actually having the EHCP paperwork to get specialist support). And through adulthood, where the chances of getting a full-time job with a neurodiverse condition are slim – just 16% of autistic people are in full-time employment, and just 22% in any kind of employment, which clearly indicates that many will be living with huge financial strains, all of which will add to the powder keg intensity of emotions that many neurodiverse people live with day to day as part of their conditions, to grave. Is it any wonder that the legal and penal systems are also out of whack with understanding the needs and drivers of neurodivergent behaviour?

I wonder how many autistic people are banged up for lashing out. When is assault not assault, from a legal perspective? When an autistic person is in overloaded meltdown, and physically lashing out, is that being criminalised? Is it being understood as an uncontrollable part of the condition?

Man in 30s dies after being stabbed in park sparking police probe

Or are we looking at blunt laws being applied without understanding, either with or without diagnoses? When is idle curiosity, such as Gary McKinnon hacking into American military systems, hyperfocused on finding out about UFOs rather than bringing down nation states, part of such conditions and not intended to be criminal activity?

Should such behaviours be treated more leniently if they are undertaken by people with neurodiverse conditions? Is fair processing enough? Is it ultimately a miscarriage of ‘justice’ if people are in effect being banged up for being Disabled? For behaviours that they cannot necessarily help?

Anna Morell