ADHD in the Criminal Justice System, Where to Next?

By Carl Mumford

I was a police officer for 14 years before I was diagnosed with ADHD at 31. A lot of what I do now, with police forces, in Parliament and with young people, comes back to one question. What happens to the people who never get that diagnosis, and whose first real contact with any system is the criminal justice one?

In November 2025 the Independent ADHD Taskforce, which I contributed to through the Experts by Experience subgroup, published its final report. Ten months on, the Government has still not formally responded. This article starts there.

What the Taskforce said

The Taskforce described unsupported ADHD as “a potent route into educational failure, long-term unemployment, crime, substance misuse, suicide, mental and physical illness”. It found a lack of ADHD awareness and training among criminal justice and healthcare staff, and unequal access to support for people in the system.

Recommendation 14 asked the Ministry of Justice to work with DHSC, NHS England and the Home Office to create a taskforce or panel to “further transform ADHD and neurodivergence support within the whole criminal justice system”. It added: “There is a striking lack of equity in terms of access to support and treatment for those in the criminal justice system.”

What I asked Parliament, and what came back

In July 2026 Lord Mott tabled five written questions in the House of Lords on our behalf. I am grateful to him for carrying this work into Parliament.

One asked what record is made, at each stage of the criminal justice system, of whether someone has ADHD or another neurodevelopmental condition. The Ministry of Justice answered on 21st July 2026 by pointing to screening, including the Additional Learning Needs tool introduced in prisons in October 2025. It is a useful tool, but it is not a national record, and screening is not data collection.

The Government’s own final update to the Cross-Government Neurodiversity Action Plan, published in February 2026, shows 19 of 20 actions complete. The one outstanding is the action to systematically collect and aggregate screening data. The same document says screening “is not systematically recorded within police custody” and “is not uniformly conducted as part of the pre-sentence process”.

On the Taskforce itself, the Action Plan update says: “NHS England and the Government have yet to formally respond.” When Baroness Leaman asked in September when a cross-government response will be published, the answer on 9th September 2026 gave no date.

There is progress to credit. Neurodiversity Support Managers now work across the prison estate, up from four prisons in 2022, and NHS England Health and Justice regions received an additional recurrent £7 million for neurodiversity and mental health custodial pathways.

What I heard inside

When I visited a prison last year, people told me they had more support inside than they had ever had on the outside. They said nobody supported them through the criminal justice process, and nobody understood their neurodivergence until they were already serving a sentence.

That says less about prison than about how little there was before. The Lords Committee on the Autism Act heard something similar: for some neurodivergent people, prison is the first experience of structure and predictability they have ever had. Structure should not have to come from a cell.

I know something about that. For 14 years I looked fine on the outside: polished, in control, good at the job. What got the attention was the addiction, the low mood and the anxiety. The ADHD went unseen. Policing gave me structure and held it together, until an accident at work took that structure away. I was 31 when someone finally put a name to it. If an officer with a job, a uniform and colleagues around them can go unseen for that long, a young person with none of those is easily missed.

Not being believed

There is something else I keep hearing.

People who have been through court, and legal professionals, have both told me that mentioning ADHD in court can work against you. Some people are advised not to raise it, because a judge may think they are trying to get away with something. I cannot point you to a study that measures this, and I would like to see one. All I can say is that I keep hearing it. If you are a solicitor or barrister, or you have been through court yourself, tell me whether this matches what you have seen.

If it is true even some of the time, think what it means. Many people with ADHD have not been believed their whole lives, at school, at work, at home. If they are then not believed in court, how do we expect to rehabilitate them? Nobody can put the right intervention in place for a condition nobody feels able to mention. Rehabilitation starts with being heard.

Where it really starts

Between 63 and 75% of all mental health problems emerge between the ages of 11 and 24. That is the window of school, exclusion and first contact with the police. It is where the school to prison pipeline runs, and where my evidence project on it is focused.

I think part of the answer is a better route for young people’s energy and ideas. Restlessness, risk taking and a head full of ideas can pull a young person towards trouble. They are also the traits that start businesses. Simon Squibb, who I heard speak at IdeasFest 2026, started his first business at 15 while homeless, and says it woke up his “entrepreneurial muscle”. A purpose can pull a young person the other way. I am planning a pilot with 10 young people in contact with the criminal justice system, testing whether entrepreneurship, workshops and mentoring can help them find a purpose that takes them away from crime.

Where to next?

The political mood is not currently on our side. Most Government activity on ADHD sits in reviews of prevalence, benefits, and young people and work. None of them was set up to ask what unsupported ADHD does in the justice system. That is the gap, and it needs an answer, not another review.

1. Answer the Taskforce.

A formal government response, with a date, a lead department and a position on each recommendation, including Recommendation 14. The Taskforce also asked for a clear mechanism to oversee and review implementation (Recommendation 15). Without one, nothing makes the Government follow through.

2. An ADHD and neurodivergence Act.

The Autism Act 2009 put a duty on government to publish a strategy and guidance. There is nothing like it for ADHD. This is my ask, not the Taskforce’s, and I think it is the way to make sure an answer cannot be quietly shelved.

3. Put lived experience in the room.

The Taskforce called for support to be co-developed with people who have ADHD (Recommendations 11 and 12). I would go further: gather lived experience properly, and put it in front of the people making decisions, in the criminal justice system most of all.

4. Be heard in the justice process.

Training for police, courts and the legal profession, which Recommendation 5 asks for from the Ministry of Justice and other departments. Screening in custody and before sentencing. The Sentencing Council guideline already tells courts to consider any developmental disorder or neurological impairment, so the question is whether that happens in practice. Proper data on what is found, so that we can see whether anything is working. And an honest look at whether people are being advised not to mention ADHD.

5. Reach young people before the system does.

Support in schools, alternatives to exclusion and youth hubs (Recommendations 2 and 3), plus routes into purpose and enterprise for the young people who are already on the edge. ADHD coaching belongs in that mix. It is not treatment and it does not replace an assessment, but it gives a young person, or an adult, a practical way to build structure without waiting for a crisis.

What you can do

It’s simple: write to your MP and ask when the Government will respond to the ADHD Taskforce report. The evidence is there, the solutions are laid out. It needs an invest-to-save approach because what is currently happening, is costing us all.

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