ADHD in Jail
ByOver the years, there have been many studies which show that if one studies the incarcerated population, the rates of ADHD are upwards of 50%. This is a huge public health concern.
Despite having read this statistic a number of times from different studies, I haven’t heard of any actual treatment studies. I wondered why no one had proactively gone into the jails and started assessing and treating people for ADHD to improve their quality of life, functioning and improve their chances of meeting their goals after they are released from custody.
I’ve just read about a study in Sweden which is doing just that. You can read about it here. Although the article is looking at potential financial savings if they are able to get people out of jail and have their ADHD treated – I think this is a great step toward helping people who have ADD/ADHD and have had trouble with the law.
The only question I’m left with is: why aren’t more communities setting up screening and treatment for ADHD for those in the correctional system? Hopefully this will happen more in the near future.
Please share your thoughts and comments below.
Best,
Dr. Kenny
5 Comments
February 2nd, 2010 at 2:38 pm
When I read about children with ADHD having an increased risk of using drugs, flunking out of school, or landing in jail, I think about my two boys. When they were very small I had a friend that said the older son would be a lawyer and that the younger son would need a lawyer. The boys were two and four years old at the time but even then it was clear that my inattentive son would stay out of trouble and the baby would be another matter altogether. He was impulsive and fearless even as a two year old.
It is the impulsiveness that gets our children with ADHD into a world of trouble and I believe that it is where the ‘rubber meets the road’ for most people dealing with ADHD. Most of our households can adapt to hyperactive and inattentive kids. We can run the hyperactive kids around the block and nag the inattentive kids until they focus. These symptoms can be extremely disruptive to a person’s potential but they do not disrupt the foundation of a household the way impulsivity does.
People with inattentive ADHD are, by and large, not impulsive. When you have an impulsive child with ADHD, you understand why this sub-type gets all the research dollars. These are the kids that, as a society, we really worry about.
I did not medicate my hyperactive son until I realized that this child had absolutely no physical control over his impulses. He was incapable of counting to 10 before he did something that he would later regret. Medication treats this symptom. His impulsivity has vanished. If we can give someone medication and the impulsivity is gone, it this not proof that there is some pathology in the brain that the medication is correcting??
I recently was reading a thread on one of the ADHD forums regarding punishing a child because he destroyed something precious while he was off his medication. They boy was confused and distraught over what he had done. The post asked how the child should pay for this destruction. I was quite torn while reading this post because I truly believe that my hyperactive/impulsive son, un-medicated, will do things that he has no control over.
Just a thought, let’s say that a child had Epilepsy and suffered a grand mal seizure where he hit a shelf, knocked down a precious vase and broke it. Would this child be responsible for replacing the vase??
Many of these ADHD prisoners need treatment not punishment. We should be providing it!
February 5th, 2010 at 9:47 am
A very good question Dr Kenny!
In Sweden, the heads of the criminalhealthcare systems have been in denial of ADHD and the effectiveness of the medicines. Since the “Nortälje projektet” has been such a great success, maybe the subconscious medical apartheid surfaces and dissolves…
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March 1st, 2010 at 6:15 pm
“rates of ADHD are upwards of 50%”
Wow. Sounds like a gift to me.