should aspies have to go to prison?

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If I got sent to jail I would probably end up as some hardened criminal's b***h. My ass would be grass.

Using Aspergers as an excuse to reduce your sentence/prevent going to jail actually creates more stigma towards having AS, because essentially that means that we don't know the difference between right and wrong (and I bloody well know what's right and wrong).

I dont see how lacking social skills, in this day and age should justify commiting crimes.

If people with Asperger's break the law, then yes. We really shouldn't be let off just because of our condition, a crime is a crime no matter who we are, and it wouldn't be fair on non-aspies if we didn't have to go to prison.

For committing a crime? Definitely yes. If you don't want to go to prison, don't do something illegal.

I feel that if there was ever a time that I would be put into jail, I think I would not be a very stable person. Jail is very scary and it brings me escalating anxiety when I think about it. I'm already vulnerable, and being in a jail makes me more vulnerable, since it is an unfamiliar place, with unfamiliar ways, and unfamiliar people. I'm very sure this type of situation wouldn't solve anyone's problems, because nobody learns anything when they're unstable.

Great!! Now I can commit whatever crime I want and just show evidence of aspie diagnosis in court and I'm good. (sarcasm)

If you know the difference between right and wrong and commit a wrong, you belong in jail. It is amazingly easy to avoid going to jail -- just don't break the law. While I sympathise with the person who had to falsify his registration (I got a ticket for an expired inspection ticket while driving to my inspection -- when I went to court and explained this to the judge, he decided I should not have to pay it, so I got off better for obeying the law and going to my court date). I do not think people with AS or HFA fall under the category of being unable to tell right from wrong, so if we commit crimes, we should pay.

I used to be anti-prison, but had to re-think this when I was shot. I really didn't want the man who tried to kill me out there running around trying to kill -- and possibly succeeding in killing -- other people. When asked if he was sorry, he said he was "only sorry I got caught." He wasn't sorry he'd attacked me, which makes me think he'd do it again. Who's to say his next victim might not have been a child, or an elderly person, or someone sick,-- anyone who wouldn't survive a bullet to the chest -- rather than a healthy 20-year-old? (Most people don't survive it, I'm told; the ADA who was second chair on my case said he thought at first it was a murder case.) The only way to be sure he's not going around shooting other people is to lock him up. There are times I feel intensely guilty about sending him to jail (I testified), but in the end, he made his own choice. And even if I were to learn he has AS, I wouldn't feel one whit different. It wouldn't change what happened to me, so it shouldn't change what happened to him.

I do think the prison system needs revamping, though. I don't think it rehabilitates most of the population. Sadly, at this time, it's what we've got.

There are some laws that are jokes. Like how people who commit piracy go to jail longer than people who commit murder. I feel like some of our laws were put in place the same way this health care bill was put in place.

everybody goes to jail if they break the law. They have a "crazy person" in there also for people with mental issues. They give them medication to help them out but that's it.

Absolutely. They should be tried as any adult, unless there is another mitigating circumstance. Aspergers is not insanity. At most, it could be considered a personality disorder. And to be honest, most people in prison have one of those anyway.

As far as the law is concerned, people with personality disorders do not qualify for special hospitals/reduced sentences; they are not illnesses, they are the individual's underlying personality.

There are Four ways you can be transferred to a mental hospital whilst in prison;

Not guilty by reason of insanity (difficult to prove, and you need real psychosis. An 'aspie meltdown' does not qualify ). Then, you are likely to be stuck in a mental hospital for a very long time.

Unfit to plead; they'll treat you for a while until your symptoms resolve and you can stand trial. Then you're tried and sentenced as normal

Diminished Responsibility; this is only of use in murder trials, where you can downgrade the trial to 'manslaughter' if the person had a real mental problem at the time, but may have had some awareness of what they were doing.

The fourth is if you're already in jail and get very badly ill (severe depression etc). You go to hospital until you get well again and then return to jail to complete your remaining sentence.

To try and make aspergers an excuse for special treatment is placing us at the same level as severe psychosis. I don't think that's a great strategy for acceptence.

Reduced terms I'd say no but of course if a specific mental condition or disability contributed to the aspie committing the crime in question I'd say that should be taken into consideration in the courtroom.

As for aspies being put into a wing of their own having aspergers myself I'd say yes. I'm not scared of going to jail but I know I'd have a hard time in there because of my poor social skills and inability to adequately read body language. Even outside jail I'm highly prone to falling into the wrong crowd. This is just a mild disadvantage I have though it'd be unfair to segregate someone like me when even there are plenty of people with disabilities in jail. Insane people and people with severe schizophrenia get thrown in the nuthouse because they're mental condition has a direct and often extreme influence on their view of reality and as a result their view of the illegal act they committed.

If they can commit the same crime, they should get the same punishment. No one needs social skills in prison. Heck, just do what you can to be put into ISO if it that's bad (bad attempt at humor).

but surely misinterpration which is a trait of aspergers, lack of reading of social cues can lead to a greater chance of comitting crime ranging from parking expenses to possibly being accused of innapropiate comments of a sexual nature, prisons are full of mainly bad people, how is grouping them together an excellent idea?

I know its easy just to slung them all together but when people are falsely incarcirated, they get huge payouts of millions of pounds because they;ve had what can only be described as a brutalising experience