Neurodiversity welfare expert Roger Broadbent predicts that the UK government could reduce crime levels by 10% and save the economy approximately £17 billion per year by introducing simple support measures for neurodiverse offenders.
According to the government’s own report by the Criminal Justice Joint Inspection (CJJI), approximately 50% of the prison population is made up of neurodiverse individuals, although Broadbent believes the figure is likely to be higher because many will not have received a formal diagnosis. A report by The Michael Sieff Foundation found that 80% of children in the criminal justice system are neurodivergent or categorised as having Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), underlining the scale of the issue across both adult and youth justice settings in England and Wales.
Broadbent, co-founder of Empowerment Passport and MD of Dyslexia Institute UK, explained: “Neurodiverse teenagers from low-income backgrounds are a magnet for criminal networks. They are more likely to have lower self-confidence, which makes them easier to groom and coerce into criminal activity. Once they become part of a criminal system, they’re more likely to stay within it unless they are given support to steer them away from it.”
“Our prison system is full of young neurodiverse people and, on average, 70% of them will continue to reoffend until they reach maturity. It makes good financial sense to deal with the issue head-on and introduce robust policies and a pathway that will guide them away from criminal activity once released.”
Broadbent is due to appear at the Neurodiversity Summit on 19th–20th September at Stanford University, where he will advise leaders on how systemic change in the prison system could reduce crime rates. He argues that a key step is to introduce a cost-effective way of screening all prisoners for a wide range of characteristics, alongside policies mandating a pathway to steer neurodiverse offenders away from reoffending.
The pathway he recommends involves skills development and support tailored to each offender’s needs while in prison. It should also ensure that all neurodiverse people leave prison with basic IT literacy skills, a bank account, an email account, and a tailored plan for education or securing employment suited to their individual strengths and weaknesses. He also advocates providing a bespoke education service for prisoners with dyslexia and dyscalculia, ensuring they leave prison with basic maths and English skills.
Official estimates confirm the high prevalence of neurodivergence in prisons, with the CJJI review noting that perhaps as many as half of those entering prison could reasonably be expected to have some form of neurodivergent condition. Recent government updates show that neurodiversity support managers are now in place in every public prison in England and Wales, yet Broadbent contends that more structured, mandated pathways are still required to achieve meaningful reductions in reoffending.
Broadbent continued: “The benefits of supporting neurodiverse prisoners are huge. Not only will we reduce crime and policing costs, but we’ll reduce the availability of drugs on the street, which has obvious benefits to the health service. There’s also massive economic potential if some of the strengths associated with neurodiversity, like problem-solving and hyper-focus, can be capitalised on for something positive rather than criminality.”
“We can either ignore the statistics, or we can tackle the problem head-on and invest in steering people away from reoffending. The cost of introducing new policies and practices into the prison system is a drop in the ocean when you compare it to how much money could be saved on things like prison spend, policing, insurance, security measures, drug addiction, and victim support, which costs the UK economy around £250bn a year.”
Independent analysis has placed the wider economic and social cost of crime in the UK at up to £250 billion annually, covering direct losses, behavioural changes driven by fear of crime, and related pressures on public services.
Broadbent is a co-founder of Empowerment Passport, a digital platform designed to help individuals with long-term health conditions or disabilities clearly communicate their adjustment needs to others, allowing appropriate support to be put in place across various settings, including education, employment, and prison. His forthcoming contribution at the Stanford event is expected to highlight transferable lessons from the UK experience for international audiences seeking practical reforms.