Проливая свет на обитателей тюрем

Shining a light on prison population

Jamie said: "I went to a special needs school, there wasn't any help there and it was hard. You don't fit in with people and you can't get a job therefore crime just seems easy. I didn't like not understanding anything."

Among the various groups of vulnerable people who inhabit our prisons already long identified - the mentally ill, the elderly and infirm, and children, for example - the existence of another, previously faceless group has emerged. For the past three years Jenny Talbot of the Prison Reform Trust has been carrying out groundbreaking research into the experiences of prisoners with learning difficulties and learning disabilities.

For her project, Know One Knows, Talbot defined prisoners with learning difficulties and disabilities as those who struggle to communicate or understand social cues, have unseen or hidden handicaps, perhaps dyslexia or dyspraxia, have experienced disruption in their lives which has led them to function at a lower level than the majority of their peers – or maybe are on the "autistic spectrum" which includes people with Asperger's syndrome. The quote above is taken from her final report, Prisoners' Voices. Such voices are rarely heard, but need to be if we are to understand our prisoner population.

Others she spoke to include David. He said: "I would look for a job. I didn't get into trouble on the outside. I was on income support, but I wanted a job but careers said I was incapable of working. They gave me a test but I couldn't do it. I used to have blackouts and they put me on Valium."

Diane: "I loved school. I went to a backward school between six and eleven."

And John: "I was living in a shelter, just drinking and thieving. I was in care from about four years old, I don't remember my home. After leaving the children's home I got a job at Safeway. When I was there I went to stay at my dad's and sister's for a week, but it didn't work out. I don't see my mum, I'm not sure where she is. When I left the children's home that is when I got into crime."