Published on 12, July, 2020
I am totally prepared to start a campaign if there is not one to support ASD Adults going to court on criminal convictions. There are NO specialist solicitors. The Police are dreadful not trained completely for ASD. The courts need to improve advocate support inside then just a solicitor alone then generally get guilty pleas instead of looking at the whole. ASD sadly do not always have a voice and always go along with solicitors bad advice. I would like to see solicitors and courts support cases where ASD and social isolation to be taken seriously in any charges and always seek reports as protocol when is known ASD person is before the courts. Can anyone help me know how to improve the system where guilty pleas are forced then the truth and innocence is lost due to ASD going along with early guilty pleas when innocent to criminal convictions then the entire?
I second this and would add to it the provision of barristers under Civil Legal Aid (covers unlawful discrimination, harassment, etc) for autistic people, especially since EHRC classes the lack of adjustments for autistic people in the criminal justice system as unlawful discrimination. From my experience only solicitors are provided and we either have to self-represent in court or go through the stress of applying to independent charities like Advocate and getting the CLA solicitor and Advocate barrister to work together. CLA tends to work on the assumption that their solicitors will scare the defendant into remedying the situation but often the defendant in discrimination cases are big unwieldy organisations (the police, CPS or in my experience a CofE Diocese) who are bent on defending their own whatever it takes, end result being that it often takes a barrister in court. So there should be support for autistic adults in court, civil or criminal.
It needs a realisation that the Mens Rea in Autism is usually totally different to neurotypicals. The justice system usually totally ignores autism and finds us easy to prosecute
'Totally' different is a bit of a stretch - e.g. we all have some idea that murder is wrong and that simultaneously having the intent to commit it and actually committing it makes one culpable - but I agree it's different. However it's also not useful to focus on such a narrow area of criminal law if you truly want the entire legal system to be fairer to autistic people. I'd argue that civil law should be the starting point, namely defining 'discrimination arising from disability' (Equality Act 2010, Section 15) and 'duty to make adjustments' (Equality Act 2010, S20) to include unfair treatment in the criminal justice system and failure of actors in the criminal justice system to make reasonable adjustments for alleged autistic offenders, including lack of consideration of a different understanding of mens rea. In fact I actually think that S15 and S20 as they exist fully cover unfair treatment of autistic people by the criminal justice system. It's just that no one has brought such a suit yet so no precedent has been set. (Disclaimer: the above is not legal advice, I'm not your lawyer, etc)