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Crime and Learning Disabilities

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Crime and Reading Problems

Research consistently illustrates that poor academic achievement is a major factor in crime and delinquency.

In the UK, a 2009 study found that approximately 85 per cent of those on probation or parole had problems expressing themselves and understanding what they were told.

More than one third fail to understand what is being said to them or what is being said to them by staff. There is growing concern that failure to address these literacy problems is likely to lead to them reoffending.

Levon Lumb explains that within the UK prison population, 80 per cent of inmates have poor writing skills, 50 per cent have poor reading skills, and 65 per cent have numeracy difficulties.   
 
Shockingly, almost 6,000 men, women and children with an IQ of less than 70 are incarcerated in UK prisons at any given time. It is important to remember that having such low IQs will affect their ability to cope with prison life and will prevent communication and understanding. In addition, many of this prison population will also be learning disabled.



This important research by the University of Liverpool is highlighted by the Prison Reform Trust report ‘No One Knows’, a  UK-wide programme of work to investigate and improve the treatment of people (adults and children) with learning disabilities in the criminal justice system.

'No One Knows' is also guided by a group of people with learning disabilities. One prisoner reportedly stated:



“Being in prison is frightening. People shout a lot. It’s noisy. You don’t know what’s happening to you. They do things to you and take over. People who work in prison need to know how to support people with learning difficulties and disabilities.”



Literacy and Crime Statistics from  Begin To Read:

• 75% of children who are unable to read adequately by the end of the 4th grade will end up in jail or on welfare.
• 85% of juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate
• More than 60% of all prison inmates are functionally illiterate.
• Those prisoners who receive literacy help have a 16% chance of re-offending as opposed to 70% for those who receive no help.
• Illiteracy and crime are intertwined.
  
• The US Department of Justice states, "The link between academic failure and deliquency, violence and crime is welded to reading failure". Over 70% of inmates in America's prisons cannot read above a fourth grade level.

Websites
Literacy and The Police - Target Crime With Literacy
On The Inside - a website to help if you have a parent or carer who is in prison
Prison Book Program - books can open doors
Prison Reform Trust (UK)
Prisoners' Education Trust - unlocking potential through education
Shannon Trust: Teaching prisoners to read
Storybook Dads - helps to maintain the vital emotional bond between prisoners and their children by helping offenders to record bedtime stories on CDs and DVDs. Keeping families together helps to reduce
Sureshot Books - sending books to inmates - making it possible for family and friends of prison inmates to send books to prisoners as well as send magazines to inmates and also have newspapers available from all states (USA)
The John Howard Society of Canada - "Effective, just and humane responses to the causes and consequences of crime".
Write to Freedom - personal and professional development through the written and spoken word - a pre- and post- release project for young offenders

Articles
Artwork painted by inmates at Feltham Young Offenders Institution
Bromley Briefings Prison Factfile - December 2010 (Prison Reform Trust)
Children with learning disabilities more likely to go to prison (Prison Reform Trust)
Christopher Morgan obituary (Founder of Shannon Trust reading project for prisoners)
Learning In Custody (Scotland, 2009)
Life in a young offenders' institution
No One Knows: Prisoners' Voices (Prison Reform Trust)
Link Between Illiteracy and Crime?
Rescued from a life of crime by cooking
Tackle youth violence by ending illiteracy
The Crime Risk of Illiteracy - 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy
The Role Literacy Plays in Crime
Time is Money (Prison Reform Trust)
Time Well Spent (Prison Reform Trust)
What Makes Juvenile Offenders Different From Adult Offenders?
Write to Freedom: Can prose stop young prisoners reoffending?

Please see our Resourcessection (Offenders).


 
 

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