Roger Broadbent has proposed measures including tailored education, IT training and support finding employment after release.
Broadbent is co-founder of Empowerment Passport and managing director of Dyslexia Institute UK.
He is due to speak about changes to the prison system at a Neurodiversity Summit at Stanford University on 19 and 20 September.
Broadbent argues prisoners should be screened for neurodivergent traits and receive support based on their individual needs.
His proposals include ensuring neurodivergent prisoners have basic IT skills, a bank account and an email account when they leave prison, alongside a plan for further education or employment.
He also wants prisoners with dyslexia and dyscalculia to have access to education aimed at improving their maths and English skills.
Broadbent said: “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.”
A Criminal Justice Joint Inspection review published in 2021 said evidence suggested neurodivergence was more prevalent among people in the criminal justice system than in the wider population.
The review cited estimates suggesting around half of prisoners may have some form of neurodivergence, while also warning that estimates varied and there were significant gaps in the available evidence.
Broadbent predicts his proposed approach could contribute to a 10% reduction in crime and estimates this could equate to £17 billion in annual savings.
The £17 billion figure is based on applying a 10% reduction to a £170 billion estimate for the tangible annual cost of crime contained in a 2025 Policy Exchange report. The supplied material does not provide evidence establishing that Broadbent's proposed measures would themselves produce a 10% fall in crime.
Broadbent said: “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.”
Empowerment Passport provides a digital record through which people with long-term conditions or disabilities can record and share information about their support needs.
It also offers a screening tool designed to identify traits associated with conditions including dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, ADHD, developmental language disorder and autism.
