Recommendation 6

A high proportion of prisoners have learning needs. It is concerning that prisons have only had to screen for additional learning needs since 2019. This means that the majority of the prison population may never have gone through a screening process. It is clear that there is a lack of data around the numbers of prisoners with special needs and that the true scale of the issue is not known. Government figures currently rely heavily on prisoners self-identifying, and many may be unaware of their learning difficulties or too embarrassed to ask for support. The Ministry of Justice must re-design CURIOUS to better capture complete data on the levels of prisoners with learning difficulties across the prison estate. It must allow more than one condition to be clearly identified and recorded in the system, and its use must be extended to private prisons. This will enable the Government to properly identify and target funding and support to those that need it most across the prison estate. Assessment and resources for people with ESOL needs should also be considered.