No One Knows: offenders with learning difficulties and learning disabilities

Abstract

Accessible summary Nobody knows how many people with learning difficulties get into trouble with the police. This article is about a project called No One Knows. It is finding out what happens when people with learning difficulties get into trouble with the police. Sometimes when people with learning difficulties get into trouble with the police they have to go to court. Sometimes they are sent to prison or have to visit a probation officer. Young people with a learning difficulty might have to go to a youth offending team. Some people with learning difficulties find it hard to understand what is happening. This can be upsetting. When people talk about the police, courts, prison, probation and youth offending they call it the criminal justice system. People who work in the criminal justice system do not always know how to support people with a learning difficulty. We want to know what people with a learning difficulty think about this. We want to know what people who work in the criminal justice system think as well. At the end of the project we will write a report about what people have told us. The report will tell the government what they should do to make things better for people with learning difficulties when they get into trouble with the police. Summary The prevalence of offenders with learning difficulties and learning disabilities is not agreed upon. What is clear, however, is that, regardless of actual numbers, many offenders have learning difficulties that reduce their ability to cope within the criminal justice system, for example, not understanding fully what is happening to them in court or being unable to access various aspects of the prison regime, including some offending behaviour programmes. Offenders with learning difficulties are not routinely identified and, as a result, often do not receive the support they need. No One Knows is a UK wide programme led by the Prison Reform Trust that aims to effect change by exploring and publicizing the experiences of people with learning difficulties who come into contact with the criminal justice system. The article highlights the aims of No One Knows and describes what, for the purpose of the programme, we mean by ‘learning difficulties and learning disabilities’. Problems in identifying precise numbers of offenders with learning difficulties and learning disabilities are discussed and attention drawn to recent research on prevalence. The context and some of the challenges of ‘prison life’ are identified and a number of early research findings from No One Knows are presented.

The prevalence and nature of intellectual disability in Norwegian prisons

“…With reference to the British project 'No One Knows' (Talbot & Riley 2007), there are several ways to approach those people with ID who offend or are alleged to have committed offences. 'No One Knows' is run by the Prison Reform Trust and has aimed to initiate changes for people with learning difficulties and learning disabilities who are referred to the criminal justice system.…”

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: The emerging role of the Registered Intermediary with the vulnerable witness and offender: facilitating communication with the police and members of the judiciary

“…As of 2007 there was still no routine screening made to determine the ‘nature and extent’ of learning disabilities in the offender population (Talbot & Riley 2007). However one prevalence study based on research at HMP Liverpool indicated that approximately 30% of prisoners have an IQ of less than 80 (Hayes et al.…”

Experiences of people with learning disabilities in the criminal justice system

“…In other words, the over-representation of persons with learning disabilities in the criminal justice system may have as much or more to do with disparate access to justice (social and legal) as it does to underlying rates of crime. In the criminal justice system, the voices of persons with learning disabilities are rarely heard (Loucks 2007;Talbot & Riley 2007). Unfortunately, the same appears to be true of research about the criminal justice system.…”