PRISON POPULATIONS Children, neuro-disability and the criminal justice system Neuro-disability – also referred to as neurodevelopmental disorders or disabilities – encompasses a range of conditions, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorders, learning/ intellectual disability, foetal alcohol spectrum disorders, and acquired brain injuries. These conditions are caused by a wide range of factors that compromise brain development and function, including genetic factors, pregnancy-related complications (including in-utero alcohol and drug exposure), birth trauma, acute injury and illness. Neuro-disabilities can result in problems with cognition, memory and concentration, emotional functioning, impulse control and social judgement, and communication. These associated problems have been frequently identified as factors that increase the risk of offending; create barriers to effective engagement in judicial proceedings (for example, due to difficulties in understanding 24 | rights or engaging in interviews); and limit the effectiveness of many rehabilitative interventions.208 Research in the UK regarding the prevalence of such disabilities consistently demonstrates disproportionately higher rates among young people in youth justice custodial institutions, compared to the general population.209 For example, while reported rates of learning or intellectual disability among young people in detention vary greatly – from 10 to 32 per cent210 – such rates are much greater than the two to four per cent reported in comparable general population studies.211 Experiences of traumatic brain injury appear to be particularly common.212 Children with neuro-disabilities face a ‘double disadvantage’ in the justice system – they are both children and individuals with disabilities. They are particularly vulnerable to violations of their rights and have additional needs that need to be protected through stringent and effective safeguards. Children in conflict with the law should be screened for the presence of neuro-disability, and justice professionals should be supported The effectiveness of diverting children away from formal judicial proceedings at the police stage was emphasised in a 2018 global systematic review of 19 high-quality studies. The review concluded that, relative to formal judicial processing, police-led diversion modestly reduces future offending of low-risk youth, and recommended that police departments and policymakers should consider diversionary programmes as part of the range of solutions for addressing youth crime.213 are Indigenous, yet Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people aged 10 to 19 years only make up 1.6 per cent of the state’s population. An inquiry has been launched to explore the reasons for this disparity.216 Nearly half of all youth who were in custody in Canada in 2016–17 were Indigenous, despite making up only eight per cent of the youth population.217 (See Foreign national prisoners, minorities and Indigenous peoples, page 21). Children from certain groups continue to be disproportionately represented in justice systems around the world. In the US, 44 per cent of imprisoned youth in 2015 were African American, despite African Americans comprising only 16 per cent of all youth in the country.214 In addition, the juvenile justice agency of the United States Department of Justice has discontinued a number of important research projects designed to assist states in reducing the disproportionate imprisonment of black and other minority young people.215 In Australia, approximately 16 per cent of young people either held in youth prisons or serving a corrections order in Victoria In the past year, serious violations of children’s rights occurred in detention facilities around the world. Ninety per cent of the participants of a 2018 study of children and young adults detained in São Paulo State, Brazil, said the military police had mistreated them during arrest, and 25 per cent said that juvenile detention staff had beaten them.218 In Papua New Guinea, it was reported that police often beat children in detention and housed them with adults, despite a child justice law that states that they should be kept separate from adults during all stages of the criminal justice process.219 Reports emerged from Egypt in 2018 that children in detention were in identifying the indicators of prominent neurodevelopmental disorders and in understanding the implications for behaviour and engagement. Appropriate language should be used to interview a child with neuro-disability, and they should otherwise be treated by justice professionals who are trained and supported in understanding the ways in which neuro-disability might affect a child’s capacity to engage in justice processes. Judicial officers responsible for sentencing should take account of the relevance of neuro-disability to offending behaviour, including the potential impact on the child of difficulties with reading, processing and memory, maturity of judgement, impulsivity and an understanding of the perspectives of others. Diversion and/or community-based sentences should be preferred. Detention facility employees, probation officers, social workers and others engaged in a child’s rehabilitation and reintegration should be aware of a child’s neuro-disability and should provide appropriate management and rehabilitation support, to ensure that the rights of the child are respected, protected and fulfilled.  exposed to torture and enforced disappearance.220 In the UK, a serious case review into abuse of children in a secure training centre stressed the importance of organisations managing facilities to be vigilant in identifying, responding to and monitoring allegations of abuse, and stated that a ‘culture of listening to, consulting with and giving children a voice is crucial to developing safe cultures within organisations’.221 A growing phenomenon is the investigation, detention and prosecution of children in the context of counter-terrorist operations. In 2018, children with alleged ties to Al-Shabaab in Somalia were arrested and at times prosecuted in military courts, while in Lebanon, children were also tried in military courts for terrorist-related offences.222 Human Rights Watch also reported on the abuse of children in detention by the Kurdistan regional government.223 In its Handbook on Children Recruited and Exploited by Terrorist Groups, the UNODC argues that when children have been recruited and exploited by terrorist and violent extremist groups, they should be treated primarily Penal Reform International and Thailand Institute of Justice | Global Prison Trends 2019