Let’s face it. Injuries suck. Especially the ones that can damage the human mind.
Now imagine having repeated blows to head over a certain period, causing you to not just feel like a human crash test dummy. But the development of criminal behavior.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a brain dysfunction caused by an outside force, usually a violent blow to the head.
When it comes to the topic of TBI, it’s commonly recognized among athletes who suffer from these injuries on the playing field.
Neuropsychologist Kim Gorgens gave a TED Talk in June 2018 to share more detail about the subject matter called “The Surprising Connection Between Brain Injuries And Crime“.
In the video, she discusses how she had studied the long and short term effects of TBI among athletes. However, in the past six years, she had done more research on TBI, but on a major group that is rarely ever spoken discussed. People in the criminal justice system.
Upon her research, she had found that 50 to 80 percent of people in the criminal justice system have a traumatic brain injury. In the general public, that number is less than five percent from inmates to probationers. They are the ones most vulnerable to sustaining them.
These injuries would have come from repeated physical assault or sustained in jail, and women were at the highest risk of having them.
“In a way, these women’s brains look like the brains of retired NFL players.”
She continued by saying how TBI mixed with mental illness, substance abuse, and trauma can make it harder for people to think.
“They have cognitive impairments like poor judgment and poor impulse control, problems that make criminal justice a revolving door.”
The lack of judgment and impulse of control causes people to get arrested and get more into trouble while they’re in jail.
Gorgen’s shared the stories of Mike, Thomas, and Vinny. These three men have had a brain injury from either sustaining a fall from a terrible accident and soon after dove into a life of crime. They’ve spent more time in court than they do anywhere else and continuously go through these rough procedures.
So what’s being done about this?
Gorgens had worked together with her state and local partners to craft a plan to create a program and assess how each person’s brain works so they can recommend solutions to help these people live safer for not just inmates, but also the correctional staff.
After they do the research, they find the strengths and weaknesses of these people and give out letters. One to the court and one to the prisoner to find out plans to help strengthen their cognitive function.
This is not to give all criminals a pass. But, to spread more awareness on the topic of TBI not just affecting athletes, but also the people behind bars.
We never think about the people in the criminal justice system who likely suffer from these problems. You might even think, what’s the point? Should we excuse criminals for experiencing a bump on the head and act so poorly?
No, not at all.
Because TBI is recognized more on athletes, inmates with these injuries are overlooked. Which, in my opinion, is unfair and sets most people up for failure, and why I think the criminal justice system is so broken.
“It’s about taking responsibility. The inmates chose from ‘I’m a total screwup, I’m a loser, to here’s what I don’t do well, and here’s what I need to do about it”.
Since these programs are available, it allows these people to want to better themselves and fix their problems, rather than rot in a cell because they probably didn’t know about their brain injuries that have led them down the wrong path.
It shows that people are willing to change if you give them the chance to do it.
Down Right Criminal 