Most criminals have brain injuries, says chief adviser
The case of Teina Pora, who was wrongfully imprisoned for two decades after wrongly confessing to a crime he didn’t commit, is just the ‘‘tip of the iceberg’’ when it comes to brain injuries costing people their freedom, a new government report says.
Chief science adviser to the justice agencies, Dr Ian Lambies, said the case was a high watermark for the problems faced by people with brain impairments in the country’s courts and prisons.
His discussion paper, What were they thinking?, was released by the Office of the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Adviser yesterday, presenting evidence on how governments might do better.
He detailed the effect of largely undiagnosed brain injuries and impairments and uses the example of Pora, who gave a false confession under pressure and was wrongly convicted of murder due to having a foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).
Brain injuries, along with a list of impairments that includes FASD and intellectual disabilities, can exacerbate a person’s risk of committing crime, and can diminish their chances of being treated fairly by the justice system, Lambie said.
‘‘The thing about when you have a traumatic brain injury, or you have fetal alcohol, you don’t go walking around with a label on your head.
‘‘It’s under-diagnosed in the general population, and in the justice population, it’s underdiagnosed and over-represented.’’
Such brain injuries can render people unable to hear properly, understand what is being said, remember the order of events, cope with sensory overload, or simply agree with what’s suggested to them due to stress.
The studies revealed that almost all women and two-thirds of men in the justice system have had at least one traumatic brain injury. It was apparent that brain injuries, along with other ‘‘risk factors’’ such as family violence and drug use, increase the risk of someone being involved in crime.
Estimates of how many people in the justice system have brain injuries range from 88 per cent of men, to a conservative estimate of 10 per cent of the 10,000 prisoners — 1000 people.
Justice Minister Andrew Little said the report provided a useful reflection on what was already known about the criminal justice system.
The studies revealed that almost all women and twothirds of men in the justice system have had at least one traumatic brain injury.