1. Jenny Talbot Wednesday, 9 November 2016
Supporting learning disabled offenders in the community: balancing rights and restrictions
Jenny Talbot
Wednesday, 9 November 2016
Thank you. By way of introduction, I have two excerpts that I will read out… both of which paint a pretty grim picture for today’s Seminar. 1

2. What I will cover About the Prison Reform Trust and the
Care not Custody programme
Danny and Graham – film clip
Prevalence of people with learning disabilities in contact with the criminal justice system – briefly
Inclusion in society and fair access to justice
Liaison and diversion services
Some resources.
Fair access to justice – focus on the accused

3. About the Prison Reform Trust
Aim: to create a just, humane and effective penal system
Small charitable organisation
Chair: most recent chair, Lord Woolf, former Lord Chief Justice; current chair, James Timpson OBE
Some programmes:
Transforming Lives: reducing women’s imprisonment
Care not Custody
Advice and information service for prisoners
Deep Custody: segregation units and close supervision centres in England and Wales (2016).
Small charitable org;
Aim… [READ OUT] 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
No £ from government; critical friend
Three of our current programmes include one on reducing women’s imprisonment; Care not Custody – which is concerned with the appropriate treatment, care and support of people with particular needs – such as ID, MHP and autism, who come into contact with criminal justice services; and we run an advice line for prisoners and their families.

4. Care not Custody Genesis Care not Custody campaign (2008)
National Federation of Women’s Institutes
Care not Custody coalition (2011)
35 allied professional groups and charities representing a membership of around two million across the health, social care and justice sectors
Some examples of activity:
Focus on liaison and diversion services
Support for families: Relative Justice
Leading Change: the role of local authorities in supporting women with multiple needs, in partnership with ADASS, Centre for Mental Health, and Education Policy Institute.

5. Danny and Graham http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/dannyandgraham
Members of the Working for Justice Group
Activities include:
Public speaking
Working as co-trainers (free training for criminal justice staff)
Supporting the development of easy Read documents
Responding to Government consultations
Supported by KeyRing Living Support Networks
Contact:

6. Prevalence
7% of people in contact with the criminal justice system have learning disabilities compared to 2% in the general population
(NHS England, 2016)
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).

7. Inclusion in society
Principle of inclusion of people with disabilities was enforced in the 2005 revision of the Disability Discrimination Act; and repeated in the Equality Act 2010
The ‘inclusion agenda’ promotes the rights of people with disabilities to live full and active lives in society
Fair access to justice:
As a victim, the right to testify in a court law
As an accused person, the right to defend oneself in a court of law
Both, with the necessary support.
Second bullet, and along side rights there are duties – in this context, the duty to live a law abiding life and to be held to account when necessary.
Fair access to justice, it seems to me, has at its core the right of a victim with learning disabilities to testify in a court of law, and the right of an accused person to be able to defend him or herself similarly.

8. Inclusion in society Equality Act 2010:
Public authorities must ensure that discrimination does not occur by, for example, making reasonable adjustments to existing provision and ensuring future provision is accessible (anticipatory)
Procedural support and reasonable adjustments:
Police custody: Appropriate Adults; Easy Read Rights and Entitlements; intermediaries (victims/witnesses only)
Criminal court: ‘special measures’ (defendants largely excluded) but case law, inherent discretion of the judiciary, and recent report from the Law Commission, ‘Unfitness to Plead’ 2016
Prison: PSI 32/2001 ensuring equality
Probation: …….
Equality Act creates a duty to eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation and to advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not
See page 7, fair access to justice – anticipatory clause
Also – more info on this, resources on last slide.

9. Inclusion in society
Law Commission review of unfitness to plead, 2008; final report and draft Bill, 2016:
The normal criminal trial is the optimum process where a defendant faces an allegation – for the defendant, for victim(s) and society
The criminal process engages ‘fair trial guarantees’, article 6 ECHR, and offers the broadest range of outcomes
Removing a defendant from the full trial process ‘only as a last resort’
Every effort should be made to ensure the defendant’s participation in the full process and to maintain capacity throughout
‘… a very small number of defendants will never have capacity.’ (Summary, Law Com 364, 2016).
Future: not yet responded to by government, but unlikely to be kicked into the long grass. This is what it says…
If a person with LD is alleged to have broken the law, he or she should be given the opportunity to defend himself in a court of law – they should, wherever possible, be able to enjoy fair access to justice in the same way as people without LD can. Diversion away from criminal justice into secure health care doesn’t necessarily provide the best outcome for that individual or the most proportionate response.
Not a twin track system – one for PLU and one for people with a LD

10. How are we doing?
Criminal Justice Joint Inspection of the treatment of offenders with learning disabilities in the criminal justice system:
Phase one, from arrest to sentence (2014)
We found unwieldy processes, the absence of services or a simple lack of knowledge and training led to offenders with a learning disability being perceived as a problem to be processed, rather than an individual with particular needs requiring individual help.
Phase two, in custody and the community (2015)
In this report, we present an equally bleak picture …We take the view that there has been a lack of focus and leadership from the centre which has meant that little discernible progress has been made in improving the lives of this vulnerable group of offenders.
Here and now…

11. Inclusion in society: rights & duties
‘If I need it, I get support to stay out of trouble’ (ADASS, LGA, NHS England 2015)
Preventing risky/challenging/offending behaviour from escalating
Protection and safeguarding of the individual and of society
Holding individuals to account
Multi-disciplinary working between health, social care and justice:
Liaison and diversion services.
Keeping folk out of trouble.
Interface between health and social care and justice = L and D services
Service model: Supporting people with a learning disability and/or autism who display behaviour that challenges, including those with a mental health condition [PRINT OFF]

12. Liaison and diversion services
The Bradley Report 2009: a process whereby people of all ages with mental health problems, learning disabilities, autism, substance misuse problems (etc) are identified and assessed as early as possible as they enter the criminal justice system:
Qualified staff, mostly CPNs with access to learning disability and other expertise
Referral into local services, as needed (with support worker)
Information sharing across and between health/social care/justice
Informs criminal justice decision making
Informs reasonable adjustments
NHS England lead, in partnership with Ministry of Justice and the Home Office; in police custody suites and criminal courts
2016/17: 52% population coverage; 2017/18: 75% population coverage; 2019/20: 100%, subject to business case.
Informs criminal justice decision making: police; judiciary; NPS/pre-sentence reports

13. Liaison and diversion services
Kent: NHS England trial site, from 2015
2015/16: 55 people with a learning disability/4% clients
County wide service:
7 police custody suites; 7 days/week, 8am – 8pm
CPN court with liaison and diversion services
CPNs in police custody suites, plus an outreach team
Individuals are identified via police risk assessment
Good Appropriate Adult service
Intermediaries are available in court for defendants
Recommendations for reasonable adjustments in court
Good links with the judiciary
Referrals: little provision for people with autism in the community, so hard to know where to make referrals.
4% - 35% needs met; 11% advice; 4% follow up; 2% no service; remaining – ‘other’
Limitations of police risk assessment…
If asked: Tarentfort Centre has medium secure forensic inpatient facilities.

14. Liaison and diversion services
How you can help:
Timely access to learning disability services and community support
Local contacts: names and telephone numbers
If you want to know more, or think you can help, contact:
Gemma McSweeney, service manager,
Criminal Justice Liaison and Diversion Service,
Kent & Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust  
Telephone:

15. Thank you Some useful websites and resources:
Mental health, autism and learning disabilities in the criminal courts:
(includes good examples of criminal justice Easy Read documents)
Some useful