Prisoners Voices: people with learning disabilities and the criminal justice system

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Prisoners Voices people with learning
disabilities and the criminal justice system
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Presentation

• About the Prison Reform Trust
• About No One Knows
• Prevalence
• Five overarching themes
• What needs to be done and what can we do now?

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Prison Reform Trust

• An independent UK charity working to create a
  just, humane and effective penal system
• Which we achieve by inquiring into the workings
  of the system informing prisoners, staff and the
  wider public and by influencing Parliament,
  Government and officials towards reform

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No One Knows

• A three year programme that looked into the
  experiences of people with learning disabilities
  and difficulties who come into contact with the
  criminal justice system

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Who did we include?

• People who
• experience difficulties in communicating and
  expressing themselves and understanding ordinary
  social cues
• have unseen or hidden disabilities such as
  dyslexia
• experience difficulties with learning and/or have
  had disrupted learning experiences
• are on the autistic spectrum

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Important to remember

• One of the most prevalent vulnerable groups
  amongst offenders comprises those who do not have
  an intellectual disability as formally defined
  but who do have much lower cognitive and adaptive
  abilities than do either the general population
  or the offending population.
• (McBrien, 2003)

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How many people?

• 20 30 of offenders have learning disabilities
  or difficulties that interfere with their ability
  to cope within the criminal justice system
  (Loucks 2007)
• 7 of prisoners have an IQ of less than 70 and a
  further 25 have an IQ of less than 80 (Mottram,
  2007)
• 23 of prisoners under 18 years of age have an IQ
  of less than 70 (Harrington and Bailey et al,
  2005)

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How many people?

• 20 of the prison population has a hidden
  disability that will affect and undermine their
  performance in both education and work settings.
  (Rack, 2005)
• Dyslexia is three to four times more common
  amongst prisoners than amongst the general
  population (Rack, 2005)
• There is a small over representation of those
  with ASD in the special hospital population
  (Hare, Gould, Mills and Wing 1996) but the number
  in prison is thought to be low (Allen 2008)

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Actual numbers

• Assuming a prison population of 82,000
• 5,740 men and women with very low IQs of less
  than 70
• 20,500 with IQs between 71 80
• 16,400 with a hidden disability that will
  affect and undermine their performance in both
  education and work settings

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Actual numbers

• Assuming 200,000 adult offenders are supervised
  by probation staff on any given day
• 14,000 with very low IQs of less than 70
• 50,000 with IQs between 71 80
• 40,000 with a hidden disability that will
  affect and undermine their performance in both
  education and work settings

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Prisoners' Voices new data

• 173 prisoners interviewed at 14 prisons of which
  154 were identified by staff as having learning
  disabilities or difficulties responses from the
  remaining 19 prisoners enabled comparisons to be
  drawn
• Interviews between May November 2007
• LIPS screening tool for learning disabilities
• Experiences of the criminal justice system

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Prisoners' Voices at the police station

• The way they looked at you was scary. When you go
  up to the counter in the custody suite lots of
  people watched and they read out your charge.
  People look at you and then you are allowed to
  leave.
• I didnt know what was going on I tried to take
  it in. They did their best.
• I tried hanging myself. They found me when I was
  blue.

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Prisoners' Voices in court

• I couldnt really hear. I couldnt understand but
  I said, Yes, whatever to anything because if I
  say, I dont know they look at me as if Im
  thick. Sometimes they tell you two things at
  once.
• I understand that I have done something wrong,
  but Im still not quite sure as to what that is.
• I was scared. On the fourth day they charged me
  and the van came for me.

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Prisoners' Voices in prison

• I felt that it was the end of my life. I tried to
  kill myself. I tried to set fire to myself.
• I told them I need help but they dont pay any
  interest in me.
• I eat the same thing every time, I manage by
  copying from the previous form.
• I dont know how to use the phone its that PIN
  thing isnt it?

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Five overarching themes

• Disability discrimination and possible human
  rights abuses
• Knowing who has learning disabilities
• Implications for the criminal justice system
• A needs led approach collaborative multi-agency
  working
• Workforce development

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Disability discrimination and possible human
rights abuses

• Maltreatment of suspects by the police and prison
  officers
• Lack of an AA during police interview
• Lack of understanding and ability to participate
  in their own trial (Article 6)
• Inaccessible information and prison regimes
  (Articles 5 and 14)

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2. Knowing who has learning disabilities

• No routine or systematic procedures for
  identifying suspects, defendants or offenders
  with learning disabilities and learning
  difficulties, or other people made vulnerable by
  the criminal justice process

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3. Implications for the criminal justice system

• Non-compliance with disability and human rights
  legislation
• Reading over two-thirds had difficulties reading
  information, which rose to four-fifths for those
  with possible learning disabilities
• Writing over two-thirds had difficulties filling
  in forms, which rose to over three-quarters for
  those with possible learning disabilities

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continued

• Understanding and being understood
• Results from the LIPS screening tool showed that
  over two-thirds of prisoners experienced
  difficulties in verbal comprehension skills,
  including difficulties understanding certain
  words and in expressing themselves
• Over half said they had difficulties making
  themselves understood, which rose to more than
  two-thirds for those with possible learning
  disabilities

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continued

• Prisoners with learning disabilities or
  difficulties were five times as likely as the
  comparison group to have been subject to control
  and restraint techniques
• And were more than three times as likely as the
  comparison group to have spent time in segregation

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continued

• An inability to participate fully in prison
  regimes leaves prisoners at greater psychological
  risk
• prisoners with learning disabilities or
  difficulties were almost three times as likely as
  those without such impairments to experience
  clinically significant depression
• They were also almost three times as likely to
  experience clinically significant anxiety

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continued

• An inability to participate in CBTPs (or their
  exclusion from them) makes it less likely that
  offending behaviour will be addressed it may
  also mean that prisoners will spend longer in
  prison as a result (ECHR Articles 5 and 14)

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4. A needs led approach collaborative
multi-agency working

• Criminal justice agencies alone do not have
  requisite expertise to effectively work with this
  group
• Paucity of multi-agency and multi-disciplinary
  schemes, including criminal justice liaison
• A history of slotting people into what support
  services are available rather than what is needed

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continued

• Ping-pong
• Procedures for referring offenders to specialist
  support services are often unclear
• Prison and probation staff often dont know what
  support is available
• Information sharing across and between
  organisations is often poor

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5. Workforce development

• Limited awareness training or specific training
  for specialist staff, for example police
  interview of vulnerable suspects
• Gaps in service provision
• Low quality services
• Role of prison officer?

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What needs to be done?

• Full set of recommendations and check lists for
  action see Prisoners' Voices
  www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/nok
• Bradley Review 30 April

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What can we do now?

• Ensure you have copies of Positive Practice
  Positive Outcomes Autism a guide for criminal
  justice professionals other good resources are
  available
• Participate in awareness training (organised
  through Offender Health by Neisha Betts
  (neisha.betts_at_csip.org.uk)

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What can we do?

• A needs led approach be prepared to create
  packages of support around the individual rather
  than slotting people into what is available
• Collaborative multi-agency, multi-disciplinary
  working
• Develop a matrix of available support and gaps in
  provision, but remain flexible
• Shared training

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What can we do?

• Timely and effective information sharing
• Establish ways to find out who might need support
  and easy referral routes
• Make changes that will benefit most people, for
  example translate written information into easy
  read

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What can we do?

• Prison and probation staff
• Ensure you have access to learning disability
  expertise know when it is appropriate to
  divert a prisoner/offender into specialist
  services
• Ensure education staff are qualified in special
  education needs including access to a dyslexia
  specialist work together to put in place
  practical arrangements to support people who
  cant read and write very well or at all

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What can we do?

• Try to arrange advocacy support in particular for
  parole boards and disciplinary hearings
• Find out which prison regime/community activities
  are fully accessible, including CBTPs
• Prison staff alert adult social services at
  least 12 weeks prior to a prisoner with learning
  disabilities (or otherwise vulnerable) leaving
  prison (see PRT article)

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For further information

• www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/nok
• Thank you