Back in 2015 the HM Inspectorate of Probation and HM Inspectorate of Prisons published a joint report on how offenders with learning disabilities were being treated across the criminal justice system. Their conclusion was blunt:
“Although there have been some national and local improvements to services for this group of offenders and prisoners, these have been limited and slow to implement. There was also evidence that many prisons and probation trusts were either unaware or unwilling to implement National Offender Management Service instructions and the Equality Act 2010.
The main factor that probation and prison leaders, both nationally and locally, appear to miss is that they have a statutory duty to make reasonable adjustments to the services they provide to make them accessible to all offenders with disabilities, including those with a learning disability. The failure to screen, and, therefore, not know the number of prisoners and probation service users with learning disabilities does not remove their obligation under the Equality Act 2010.”
That statutory duty is exactly the same today – it’s still the Equality Act 2010 that requires prisons and probation to make reasonable adjustments for anyone with a learning disability or difficulty, whether or not they’ve been formally diagnosed. The National Offender Management Service named in that quote doesn’t exist any more – it became HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) in 2017 – but the underlying duty carried straight across.
What has genuinely moved on is the scale of the response. The government now estimates that up to half of the adult prison population may be neurodivergent in some way – autism, ADHD, dyslexia, a learning disability or difficulty – and since April 2021 more than 180,000 screenings have been carried out, identifying around 25,000 prisoners with learning difficulties who’ve gone on to get extra support in education. In 2024 the government finished rolling out Neurodiversity Support Managers to every publicly-run prison and Young Offender Institution in England and Wales – 105 establishments in total. Their job is to help identify prisoners with these needs, get them onto the right education and training, train other staff in de-escalation techniques that actually work for a neurodivergent prisoner, help with everyday things like understanding the rules or a wing routine, and prepare people for job interviews and explain their needs to employers before release.
Individual prisons have also started doing their own thing on top of this: Thameside has trained “neurodiversity champions” among both staff and prisoners, Onley runs a peer-led support model, and Leyhill has opened a dedicated sensory room. Some prisons now use a “passport” document that travels with a prisoner and tells staff what they need to know about them before something stressful like an adjudication hearing.
It isn’t all fixed, though. A 2025 review by the Neurodivergence in Criminal Justice Network found the same underlying problem the 2015 report flagged – there still isn’t one consistent screening tool or information-sharing system used across the whole justice system, and the Ministry of Justice has only “partly agreed” to fix that. So if you or someone you know has a learning disability or difficulty and isn’t getting the support they’re entitled to, it’s still worth raising it directly with the prison or probation team, in writing, and referring to the Equality Act 2010 duty if you need to.
- Report – A joint inspection of the treatment of offenders with learning disabilities within the criminal justice system – phase two in custody and the community (PDF, 1.53 MB)
- News release – Offenders with learning disabilities not getting help they need in prison, say inspectors
- News release – Greater support for neurodivergent offenders in bid to cut crime (May 2024)