KeyRing contribute to a fairer and more effective CJS by demonstrating how neurodiverse people are often disadvantaged by a service that doesn’t meet their needs but can flourish with person-centred adjustments.
... in work in the Criminal Justice System for many years. We have worked directly with the Prison Reform Trust, Bemix (formerly The Skillnet Group), the Department of Health and NHS England on learning disability projects relating to offenders with learning disabilities, autism or both. KeyRing has also delivered several programmes of awareness training for different criminal justice professionals.
Finding the right package of support for someone with a learning disability, autism or both can be the key to turning their life around. This is also true for people with a learning disability, autism or both who find themselves in the criminal justice system.
The Working for Justice group helps the criminal justice system to support people with learning disabilities, autism or both. The group won the National Learning Disabilities Award (2014) for their work making the system more accessible.
In 2022 KeyRing produced the Fairer Justice for All report, after looking at the experiences of young neurodiverse people in the criminal justice system.
Read the Fairer Justice for All report
Watch the easy summary video of Fairer Justice for All
Find Out More about the Working for Justice Group
Find Out More about the Easy Read Examples
Find Out More about about previous projects
Find useful further resources
Fairer Justice for All is a KeyRing project and report that was funded by the Barrow Cadbury Trust – part of the ‘Transition to Adulthood’ (or T2A) programme.
Initially, the programme had very little information about the experiences and needs of young people with Learning Disabilities or Autism in the Criminal Justice System. We provided this input by arranging focus groups, zoom meetings and one-to-one discussions between 2021-2022 for young people with a learning disability or autism in the criminal justice system.
Participants were encouraged to share their expertise, the impact of current ways of working, including the gaps between policy and practice.
Some retold the transition from youth services to adult services in the criminal justice system and the social care system.
The Fairer Justice for All report displays these findings. KeyRing has since disseminated it to justice officials and other influential stakeholders including third sector groups.
Read about it here.
Contact Tracy Hammond for more details.
Danny was sent to prison originally for not paying a fine. This led him into a criminal lifestyle, in which he served a total of 22 years and 9 months in prison for various offences.
Danny struggles to read or write. Once stuck in the cycle of crime, unsupported, Danny continued to struggle with communication and was unable to understand the demands involved in setting himself up in the community.
39 years after his first offence, Danny joined his local KeyRing Living Support Network. The support this group offered him has allowed him to create a life for himself and he has not offended since joining this network 8 years ago.
The support given amounts to just a couple of hours a week, helping with paperwork, maintaining a tenancy and being involved in the community.
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