The ‘Neurodiversity in the Criminal Justice System’ report, published in 2021, revealed that neurodivergent prisoners were ‘often unidentified, unsupported, and disadvantaged by a system that lacked adequate understanding of their needs or made consistent provision.’

Four years on, ‘the system still lacks consistent data on how many people in prison are neurodivergent and how this affects their experience of prison life.’ The report states that many prisons continue to rely on self-disclosure and many prisoners with neurodivergent needs still go unidentified. 

Ongoing challenges include:

• Variability across the estate: provision for neurodivergent people continues to vary too much from prison to prison.
• Over-reliance on individuals: where support is strong, it is often owing to specific staff or prisoner champions, rather than a systemic change. 
• Limited inclusion of lived experience: neurodivergent people in prison remain largely absent from service design and review.

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