Neurodiverse young people in the CJS

We want to support young people aged 16-25 with learning disabilities or autism to tell us about their experience of the Criminal Justice System.

KeyRing have funding from the Barrow Cadbury Trust to look at the experiences of young people with a learning disability or autism who have been involved in the Criminal Justice System. This will feed into the Barrow Cadbury Trust’s Transition to Adulthood (T2A) programme. The programme supports the development of ways to make criminal justice interventions with young adults as effective as possible. We will contribute to this by supporting young people with learning disabilities or autism to tell their stories and talk about their experiences. 

Stories can be shared face-to- face or via videoconferencing. We will explain what the story will be used for and will ensure everyone's privacy by anonymising the stories. 

If you or a young person that you know would like to contribute then please contact Hugh.Asher@keyring.org. 

More about Hugh 

Hugh has over 10 years’ experience of working in prisons and has experience of taking part in European and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded research in prisons. Hugh has delivered Learning Disability and Autism Awareness training to staff from over 30 prisons as part of a previous Comic Relief-funded project. Hugh is very aware of the complexities and security considerations around getting input from prisoners into projects but believes that together we will find a way to ensure that we can impact on and improve lives. 

More about KeyRing 

KeyRing has over 30 years’ experience of supporting people with learning disabilities to live in the community. We have had a policy-influencing role within the Criminal Justice System since we formed the Working for Justice reference group in 2006 to provide the voice of lived experience to The Prison Reform Trust’s suite of reports, No One Knows. This group has gone on to develop co-delivered learning disability awareness training for CJS staff, to support the Criminal Cases Review Commission to make their applications processes more accessible, and to influence reports such as Lord Bradley’s report which introduced the idea of Liaison and Diversion Services.