Charles ‘Salvador’ Bronson (2023) by Sean Bw Parker
Ex-prisoners, or returning citizens as they have been relabelled by various well-meaning justice reform authorities, face constant problems in rehabilitating into society. These problems often come from the public, who are largely led by media framing. This becomes a tangible obstacle in the criminal justice experienced person's rehabilitation, the concept of which is a marker of a civilised liberal democracy. The absence of this kind of forgiveness and understanding to an individual's motivations or specific story indicates a society that enjoys feeding its metaphorical Christians to the lions.
There are also many wrongful convictions, which the Crown Prosecution Service admits average at about 1400 per year. New probation guidance says that if an employer doesn't ask about any convictions at interview, then the interviewee isn't required to disclose. However, if the candidate is then successful and offered the position, probation tell them to disclose anyway, even though this kind of arbitrary case-by-case treatment isn't in the probation guidelines. The employer will then go to a search engine to investigate any criminal justice aspect of the candidate's past, and generally then withdraw the offer.
Given this kind of overly risk-averse safeguarding, and the fact that one in three British adult males have a criminal record, it's no wonder employers can't find suitable employees to fill key positions. When the employer uses the search engine as a reference, they are inadvertently engaging in a biased system that discriminates against those with criminal justice experience. Including people with CJE in the protected characteristics under Equal Rights law would provide legal protection against this kind of prejudice.
While an estimated one-fifth of those in prison maintain innocence in their index conviction to some degree, up to 90% of inmates are estimated to have a history of mental health problems. Neurodiverse ways of being, such as being on the autism spectrum, attention deficit disorder, depression and communication differences, while not necessarily being mental health related are highly over-represented and ignored at community, police, court and prison levels.
Some Judges even maintain that defendants might use being neurodiverse as an 'excuse' - let alone police and prosecutors, who will use related antisocial-seeming behaviours as evidence of guilt or wrongdoing. This is behind why many people with neurodiversity plead guilty when they are not – to avoid the pressure of investigation, on themselves and those that care for them.
For those that are found 'guilty' of the charges against them, many have a hard time navigating the complex terrain of the undiagnosed neurodiverse. How many of our decisions does anyone truly make when they're made in the moment, or under great emotional duress? The increasingly problematic juxtaposition of free-will, neurodiversity and the adversarial criminal justice system logically lead to conflict resolution needing to be utilised on a far wider piste.
Returning citizens are beset on all sides by a media feeding the prejudices of their audiences when it comes to the criminal justice experienced. Those that don't like to see themselves as prejudiced are often beset by ignorance of the reasons these people find themselves in such a position in the first place. Removing the obstacles of ignorance and prejudice is essential in exploring behind the headlines and political bias rampant in a million news articles available at any given time. Enlightened practitioners in the criminal justice system, academia and the media would do well to learn from those who have gone through the fire themselves.
Sean Bw Parker
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