Looked after children in prison as adults:  life adversity and neurodisability

Hope Kent; Amanda Kirby; George B Leckie; Rosie P Cornish; Lee Hogarth; Huw Williams

doi:10.1108/IJPH-08-2022-0051

Looked after children in prison as adults: life adversity and neurodisability

Hope Kent^*
, Amanda Kirby
, George B Leckie
, Rosie P Cornish
, Lee Hogarth
, Huw Williams

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

196 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Purpose. Looked After Children (LAC) are criminalised at 5 times the rate of children in the general population. Children in contact with both child welfare and child justice systems have higher rates of neurodisability and substance use problems, and LAC in general have high rates of school exclusion, homelessness, and unemployment. We aimed to understand whether these factors persist in LAC who are in prison as adults.

Methodology. Administrative data collected by the Do-IT profiler screening tool in a prison in Wales, UK were analysed to compare sentenced prisoners who were LAC (n=631) sentenced prisoners who weren’t LAC (n=2,201). The sample comprised all prisoners who were screened on entry to prison in a two-year period.

Findings. Prisoners who were LAC scored more poorly on a functional screener for neurodisability (effect size = 0.24), and on four self-report measures capturing traits of dyslexia (0.22), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (0.40), autism spectrum disorders (0.34), and developmental co-ordination disorder (0.33). Prisoners who were LAC were more likely to have been to a Pupil Referral Unit (0.24), have substance use problems (0.16), be homeless or marginally housed (0.18), and be unemployed or unable to work due to disability (0.13).
Originality/Value. This study uniquely contributes to our understanding of prisoners who were LAC as a target group for intervention and support with re-integration into the community upon release. LAC in prison as adults may require additional interventions to help with employment, housing, and substance use. Education programmes in prison should screen for neurodisability, to develop strategies to support engagement.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	512-523
Number of pages	12
Journal	International Journal of Prisoner Health
Volume	19
Issue number	4
Early online date	24 Jan 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPH-08-2022-0051
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 24 Jan 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This project was funded by HMP/YOI Parc. Hope Kent was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (grant number ES/P000630/1). The funders had no role in the study design; collection, analysis and interpretation of the data; writing of the report; or the decision to submit the article for publication. For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a “Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)” licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising. Due to ethical concerns, the research data supporting this publication are not publicly available.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth

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Cite this

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title = "Looked after children in prison as adults: life adversity and neurodisability",

abstract = "Purpose. Looked After Children (LAC) are criminalised at 5 times the rate of children in the general population. Children in contact with both child welfare and child justice systems have higher rates of neurodisability and substance use problems, and LAC in general have high rates of school exclusion, homelessness, and unemployment. We aimed to understand whether these factors persist in LAC who are in prison as adults. Methodology. Administrative data collected by the Do-IT profiler screening tool in a prison in Wales, UK were analysed to compare sentenced prisoners who were LAC (n=631) sentenced prisoners who weren{\textquoteright}t LAC (n=2,201). The sample comprised all prisoners who were screened on entry to prison in a two-year period. Findings. Prisoners who were LAC scored more poorly on a functional screener for neurodisability (effect size = 0.24), and on four self-report measures capturing traits of dyslexia (0.22), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (0.40), autism spectrum disorders (0.34), and developmental co-ordination disorder (0.33). Prisoners who were LAC were more likely to have been to a Pupil Referral Unit (0.24), have substance use problems (0.16), be homeless or marginally housed (0.18), and be unemployed or unable to work due to disability (0.13). Originality/Value. This study uniquely contributes to our understanding of prisoners who were LAC as a target group for intervention and support with re-integration into the community upon release. LAC in prison as adults may require additional interventions to help with employment, housing, and substance use. Education programmes in prison should screen for neurodisability, to develop strategies to support engagement.",

author = "Hope Kent and Amanda Kirby and Leckie, \{George B\} and Cornish, \{Rosie P\} and Lee Hogarth and Huw Williams",

note = "Funding Information: This project was funded by HMP/YOI Parc. Hope Kent was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (grant number ES/P000630/1). The funders had no role in the study design; collection, analysis and interpretation of the data; writing of the report; or the decision to submit the article for publication. For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a “Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)” licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising. Due to ethical concerns, the research data supporting this publication are not publicly available. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.",

year = "2023",

month = jan,

day = "24",

doi = "10.1108/IJPH-08-2022-0051",

language = "English",

volume = "19",

pages = "512--523",

journal = "International Journal of Prisoner Health",

issn = "1744-9200",

publisher = "Emerald Publishing",

number = "4",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Looked after children in prison as adults

T2 - life adversity and neurodisability

AU - Kent, Hope

AU - Kirby, Amanda

AU - Leckie, George B

AU - Cornish, Rosie P

AU - Hogarth, Lee

AU - Williams, Huw

N1 - Funding Information: This project was funded by HMP/YOI Parc. Hope Kent was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (grant number ES/P000630/1). The funders had no role in the study design; collection, analysis and interpretation of the data; writing of the report; or the decision to submit the article for publication. For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a “Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)” licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising. Due to ethical concerns, the research data supporting this publication are not publicly available. Publisher Copyright: © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

PY - 2023/1/24

Y1 - 2023/1/24

N2 - Purpose. Looked After Children (LAC) are criminalised at 5 times the rate of children in the general population. Children in contact with both child welfare and child justice systems have higher rates of neurodisability and substance use problems, and LAC in general have high rates of school exclusion, homelessness, and unemployment. We aimed to understand whether these factors persist in LAC who are in prison as adults. Methodology. Administrative data collected by the Do-IT profiler screening tool in a prison in Wales, UK were analysed to compare sentenced prisoners who were LAC (n=631) sentenced prisoners who weren’t LAC (n=2,201). The sample comprised all prisoners who were screened on entry to prison in a two-year period. Findings. Prisoners who were LAC scored more poorly on a functional screener for neurodisability (effect size = 0.24), and on four self-report measures capturing traits of dyslexia (0.22), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (0.40), autism spectrum disorders (0.34), and developmental co-ordination disorder (0.33). Prisoners who were LAC were more likely to have been to a Pupil Referral Unit (0.24), have substance use problems (0.16), be homeless or marginally housed (0.18), and be unemployed or unable to work due to disability (0.13). Originality/Value. This study uniquely contributes to our understanding of prisoners who were LAC as a target group for intervention and support with re-integration into the community upon release. LAC in prison as adults may require additional interventions to help with employment, housing, and substance use. Education programmes in prison should screen for neurodisability, to develop strategies to support engagement.

AB - Purpose. Looked After Children (LAC) are criminalised at 5 times the rate of children in the general population. Children in contact with both child welfare and child justice systems have higher rates of neurodisability and substance use problems, and LAC in general have high rates of school exclusion, homelessness, and unemployment. We aimed to understand whether these factors persist in LAC who are in prison as adults. Methodology. Administrative data collected by the Do-IT profiler screening tool in a prison in Wales, UK were analysed to compare sentenced prisoners who were LAC (n=631) sentenced prisoners who weren’t LAC (n=2,201). The sample comprised all prisoners who were screened on entry to prison in a two-year period. Findings. Prisoners who were LAC scored more poorly on a functional screener for neurodisability (effect size = 0.24), and on four self-report measures capturing traits of dyslexia (0.22), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (0.40), autism spectrum disorders (0.34), and developmental co-ordination disorder (0.33). Prisoners who were LAC were more likely to have been to a Pupil Referral Unit (0.24), have substance use problems (0.16), be homeless or marginally housed (0.18), and be unemployed or unable to work due to disability (0.13). Originality/Value. This study uniquely contributes to our understanding of prisoners who were LAC as a target group for intervention and support with re-integration into the community upon release. LAC in prison as adults may require additional interventions to help with employment, housing, and substance use. Education programmes in prison should screen for neurodisability, to develop strategies to support engagement.

U2 - 10.1108/IJPH-08-2022-0051

DO - 10.1108/IJPH-08-2022-0051

M3 - Article (Academic Journal)

C2 - 36689249

SN - 1744-9200

VL - 19

SP - 512

EP - 523

JO - International Journal of Prisoner Health

JF - International Journal of Prisoner Health

IS - 4

ER -