Brain injuries rife in prisons

Bob Barco knows firsthand how brain injury can contribute to a cycle of reoffending and imprisonment. Now 49, Barco was released from prison in 2009 after 20 years behind bars for armed robbery - much of it in maximum security.

Barco fell into the wrong crowd as a teen, spent time in juvenile justice for breaking and entering, left school early, got into alcohol, drugs and stealing cars and, eventually, was put away for armed robbery.

Hed been diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy as a child.

Then I had my head cut open when a horse chased me through a fence. Then I went through the windscreen of a car - had about 130 stitches in my head. I had a few fights in jail too, got whacked over the head with a paddle bat.

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Add in his use of heroin, amphetamines and benzodiazepines in his 20s and for a long time Barco, who has an IQ of 180 - putting him in the realm of genius - embodied what Corrections Victoria says are the clear linkages between acquired brain injury and crime.

Nearly half of all male prisoners in Victoria have an acquired brain injury but fewer than 0.01 per cent have access to appropriate programs and services, according to figures from Corrections Victoria.

Medical and criminal justice experts describe acquired brain injury in the criminal justice system as a hidden epidemic, as the links between offending and ABI become ever clearer.

Side effects include memory loss, aggression, impulsivity and lack of anger control. It can restrict insight - into consequences or the importance of, say, legal proceedings. It can cause disinhibition, leading to substance abuse and other risk taking. Repetitive tendencies are also common; more than one in three prisoners will reoffend.

Nick Rushworth, executive director of Brain Injury Australia, said: If someone knocks over an ATM or kills their grandmother with a meat cleaver, it can be partly down to the anger and irritability from a brain injury.

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Brain injuries rife in prisons