ADHD: Impact on Prison Rehabilitation and Reoffending
Adam Dance Excerpts(3 days, 11 hours ago)
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Tessa Munt (Wells and Mendip Hills) (LD)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the impact of ADHD on rehabilitation and reoffending in the prison system.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. I think we all accept that our prison system faces significant challenges, including poor rehabilitation, high reoffending rates, overcrowding, limited resources and prisoner numbers that have doubled over the last 30 years and now exceed 87,000. The Minister will know that recent estimates suggest that prisoner numbers could surge to almost 100,000 by the end of next year.
In preparing for this debate, I drew on a number of publications with which the Minister will be familiar, but it is noteworthy that many of the studies were undertaken by those with links not only to justice but to the Home Office, the police, health and social care, planning, education, social equality and good government.
Adam Dance (Yeovil) (LD)
I have spoken to people who found out in prison that they have neurodiverse conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which I also have. If they had been supported at school, things would have been different. Does my hon. Friend agree that we need to roll out universal screening for all neurodiverse conditions at primary school level?
Tessa Munt
I could not agree more; that might help us to understand the interaction between behaviour and authority.