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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 1:33 am
Time: 1:33 am
Results for brain injuries
1 results foundAuthor: Rushworth, Nick Title: Policy Paper: Out of Sight, Out of Mind: People with an Acquired Brain Injury and the Criminal Justice System Summary: Local and international surveys both of head injuries with loss of consciousness and chronic substance abuse in adult corrections and juvenile justice indicate very high rates of acquired brain injury (ABI). As many as 60 per cent of offenders report histories of ABI. This rate would account for 17,900 - out of 29,700 - adult prisoners in Australia. This paper examines the research evidence for an association between ABI and subsequent, sometimes violent, offending. While problems people may experience with thinking and behaviour the result of their ABI place them at the highest risk of re-offending and re-incarceration, the disability receives low recognition throughout the criminal justice system. The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) claims as one of its "current commitments" under the National Disability Strategy ―court diversion programs for people with disability…designed to address the mental health or disability needs of defendants and their offending behaviour. This paper demonstrates that people with an ABI are ordinarily ineligible for such programs due to restrictive legislation or access criteria. Whether in courts' considerations of granting bail or “fitness to be tried”, or in sentencing, or referral to specialist tribunals of “therapeutic jurisprudence”, programs of diversion from the criminal justice system are narrowly targeted, commonly at people with an intellectual disability or mental illness. "While these population groups certainly face significant problems in the criminal justice system and ought to be priorities for action, the pre-occupation with these groups to date must not be allowed to obscure the equally serious problems facing other impairment groups, including persons who are deaf, deafblind, persons with severe communication impairments, and persons with acquired brain injury." Details: Ryde, NSW: Brain Injury Australia, 2011. 40p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 23, 2011 at: http://www.braininjuryaustralia.org.au/docs/CJSpolicypaperFINAL.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Australia URL: http://www.braininjuryaustralia.org.au/docs/CJSpolicypaperFINAL.pdf Shelf Number: 122465 Keywords: Adults with DisabilitiesBrain InjuriesMental Health ProgramsPrisoners (Australia) |