Criminal Justice System

NAS62563 said:

My case was basically "online trolling" to someone who had done the same to me.

I don't mean to be rude, but this was an incredibly stupid thing to do. You can't expect to advocate for better treatment if you're guilty of criminal activity. Just because you've given yourself a rationale for committing a crime, it's still a crime, and two wrongs do not make a right.

I really admire your courage and determination.

My only qualm is that the so-called Legal System is just another dysfunctional spoke in the larger neurotypical wheel. As some have pointed out: there are already provisions for defendants with autism, but like all institutions—because neurotypicals run them, they also choose when and to whom they apply these provisions. As long as Police Officers, Judges, Jurors and the CPS are neurotypical, it would require nothing short of a major evolutionary shift to make it treat autistic people fairly.

That said, I fully support any attempt you make to improve the system.

Did you try to appeal? And do you know how long you have to wait before being able to appeal?

I'm willing to join you in creating a campaign. The guidance that exists is not enough. It only applies to the court but what about the stages before it gets to court? My husband went through the court process and it was horrific how badly everything was handled from start to finish. Luckily he only got a sentence of a few months but I think the jail sentence could have been because of how badly things were handled. He really needed therapy. Jail has made things worse.

I totally agree with what you say, i find it difficult to put into words, however I feel the in justice  system should be held accountable to the damage and demoralisation on society vulnerable people. it needs to change, support not punishment.

but hold on, i heard about legal capacity and when people commited a crime because of their disability, they usually get treated at mental hospital not jail. like i heard many cases where some people had killed people because of their depression, they usually get send to mental hospital not prison.

u clearly like writing. which makes me think this is where u should focus. i mean writing/researching for newspapers and magazines 

Have you thought of sending a description of what's happened to you to a liberal newspaper like The Guardian? They might run a story on it. I think you're good at explaining the shortcomings of the justice system and how it runs against the public interest.

My case was basically "online trolling" to someone who had done the same to me. My lawyer described it as being a nuisance but not neccessarily criminal. I think in a logical way, so I was thinking along the lines of; this person won't leave me alone so if I react by demonstarting similar behaviour to what they have done to me, then I have logical reasoning and if I do upset her with messages then I will receive some sort of warning, that it wouldn't make sense for the CJS to spend tens of thousands prosecuting me for something so petty without warning when the complainer has done the exact same to me, and then costing the public tens of thousands more in the tax I now do not pay. The government invested a huge amount in my education to receive a masters in engineering but now the public will never see the benefit of me using this to contribute to the economy.

I realise now that my thinking was wrong. The politicians are there to come up with pet project new laws to look like they are solving the countries problems to collect their paycheck, in my case "online trolling". The CPS and Police must abide by these laws and in some cases are not left much professional judgement because they need to make examples out of people. Having autism and poor social awareness (to not notice I upset someone), I was an easy target. I live in a rural area where not much happens in terms of crime. My case kept them busy and spent a lot of public funds to ensure that they will maintain their funding from the government and be able to keep themselves in a job. There are no winners, certainly not the public interest or economy in which the whole point of them is, the only winner is those employed in the public sectors fufilling their selfish agendas to look like they are needed and keep their job to pay their mortgage.

The CJS itself is very one-sided and twisted in the favor of the prosecution where logical explanations are ignored and everything is used against you, more simple and cost-effective solutions such as a social worker referral or police warning are not used. In my opinion the pyschologist which prepared my report was too scared to testify that autism could explain all of my behaviour despite it being fairly obvious this was the cause, and the judge was too scared to throw the case out or pass a miminal sentence for fear of being ridiculed in the newspapers.

Lets get  our priorities here; shops and most public places do not cause a lot of harm, and in schools there is now legal requirements, but the police are consistently very cruel and can be life threateningly bad to autistic people as I know. This post was about the criminal justice system.

Most shop workers are on minimum wage and I doubt they'd be interested in being trained to deal with every possible combination of strange people they'll meet - from aggressive people, drunks, fraudsters, deaf people, oldies with dementia  etc.    Auties only make up 1% of the population - other difficult groups are much more prevalent.

hi

tbh its not just them. shops and other places that are busy with ppl should have training too. as talked to like stupid and lack of unstanding leads to cruel assumptions and remarks!

That sounds all wrong and a feature of neurotypical legal people not understanding these distress and thinking of autism. It’s all about our lack of “theory of mind” which means we miss spotting things which others see as obvious, even though we have no malicious intent. 

The law is very cruel to autistic people. Hopefully something will change . It certainly needs to. Many of the story’s here are terrible. The police and cps are supposed to be under strain but spend time on these inappropriate cases where they harm us with autism 

It's true that in these crazy times we live in we are at the absolute mercy of the least stable person we've ever encountered, going back almost to the day we are born!  Stories like yours make me almost glad I don't really talk to anyone.

I'm really sorry this has happened to you!

The stigma attached to a criminal record is difficult. It must be really hard for you when you've worked so hard at university and earned a degree and now this has come along.

There are some employers that will overlook a criminal record but there is of course a stigma, there is research that proves it. The entertainment industry is one in which it matters a lot less. Self-employment is probably the best option too, if you  think you can work that way.

I hope there's some way forward for you. Perhaps in time, a new opportunity will arise from what has been something terrible.

Update I was convicted of offending the complainer on Facebook and given community service and a social worker for 2 years so it is impossible for me to work an an engineer and deal with all of this and the criminal record. I am now looking into claiming ESA from the taxpayer and will not be contributing to the country, paying my £30k student loan or any income tax back to the public

I was arrested and charged, over 20 electronic devices taken from my house basically for online harassment to girl who wouldn't leave me alone and stalked me for years. She manipulated me into reacting by sending lots of messages and when her husband found out she was messaging me she made a cover story that it was me that wouldn't leave her alone. Almost 3 years later (its taken the police hundreds of hours to go through my devices) the court case is still pending and I haven't been to get on with my life so I have been unemployed or I would have over £10k in legal, technical and psychiatric bills to pay for. I just graduated uni and my career has been ruined. I made a counter complaint showing how this girl had messaged me 50 times in a row previously and had followed me and even showed her driving past my house but the police keep hiding this and only focus on what I did back to her. The psychologist said that autism is not a defence for sending lots of messages or going on to her emails after she gave me the password and that I ought to have known better. BTW the whole case has cost taxpayers over £100k but I'm an easy target to the police and CPS who want to bump their statistics up

Of course I have not only contacted Samaritans about 1,500 times, but done their training, been to their centre, but realise they are only a "listening service" and since I  have been convicted for asking for help................

I also work as a volunteer for MIND

My point was that we with ASD have a different way of seeing and thinking about things and unfortunately are very high  risk if we get to thinking about failure and suicide.

There is NO service that has been helpful for us.

I have tried them all

i think the Aspergers label has been discontinued now its just Autistic spectrum Disorder for everything now