‘The silence’: examining the missing voices of disabled people in police custody

Abstract

The role of the Appropriate Adult was established to protect the rights of suspects considered ‘vulnerable’ due to a number of miscarriages of justice during the 1970s. Appropriate Adult services are now a legal requirement in England and Wales for detained adults with mental health issues, learning disabilities or difficulties who have been detained in police custody. The aim of this project was to evaluate the extent and involvement of disabled adults who are or have been in police custody. The study concludes by suggesting the application of a social model approach within police custody, to meet the needs of service users and to avoid any miscarriages of justice.

Points of Interest

• Appropriate Adult services are now a legal requirement in England and Wales for adults detained in police custody who have mental health issues, learning disabilities or difficulties

• The research explores the role of Appropriate Adult schemes across England and Wales in protecting the rights of disabled people in custody.

• This study examines whether disabled people’s voices are embraced in Appropriate Adult Schemes to improve services and to remove disabling barriers.

• This study discovered that service user voices were missing from every aspect of Appropriate Adult service provision.

• The findings suggest that in order to develop an effective criminal justice service for disabled people in custody, service user voices must be incorporated to develop a service which protects the rights of disabled people.

Keywords:

• Appropriate adult schemes
• police custody
• mental health issues
• learning disabilities or difficulties
• miscarriages of justice
• disability studies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.