Brian Shrader: How Autism is Misunderstood in the Legal System
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Who is Brian Shrader and what is his background in the legal system?
Hopefully, you gain more awareness, acceptance, and a better understanding for autism around the world. Hi, I'm Tony Mantor. Welcome to Why Not Me? The World, Humanity Over Handcuffs, the Silent Crisis special event. We are joined today by Brian Schrader, a seasoned criminal lawyer with a distinguished career in the legal system. Initially, he served as prosecutor since 2008 and briefly participated in the Mental Health Diversion Program. Subsequently, he transitioned to criminal defense after leaving the state attorney's office. We are fortunate to have him share his vast expertise on our show. Thanks for coming on.
Yeah. Any opportunity to help out?
Thanks so much. Can you give us a brief introduction to what you do?
Sure. I've been doing criminal law since 2008. Started out as a prosecutor, including a short stint in the mental health diversion program that everyone had to go through as kind of part of the promotion chain, and then left the state attorney's office to do criminal defense work and a few other areas of law.
How does autism affect interactions with law enforcement?
As part of criminal defense work, it's inevitable that we're going to encounter a lot of different mental health issues. Substantial amount are related to drug addiction, either mental health issues caused by drug addiction or mental health issues that lead to drug addiction. But we also see people, and I can't sit here and say that it's always been referred to by its name, is autism or any other type of neurodivergent or what some people refer to as neurodivergent situations. It's not always called by its name, but what we see and where I think I've seen autism, it's specifically in the criminal justice system the most, is mostly with dealing with escalating and de-escalating situations. I have not seen a lot of situations where I can say my autism caused me to commit a theft. That's not necessarily something we're going to see.
But what we will see is someone who commits a theft is then confronted by law enforcement, taken into a small room. There's four or five people trying to interrogate them. And the situation will escalate into something else or law enforcement will go to arrest someone. grab ahold of them, try and manipulate their body. And we see them resist, tense up, start to have a very strong emotional, physical reaction to it. And we see those things certainly escalate the situation instead of someone who perhaps was not on the autism spectrum, who was caught doing something as basic as a petty theft from Walmart. They may be able to talk their way out of it a little better. They may be able to deescalate the situation a little more comprehend if law enforcement give them the option of a pre-arrest diversion situation. And so that's where we've seen autism actually called by its name in the situation.
If we want to talk about the mental health situation, the criminal justice system generally, I don't think we have enough time in the day or the week or the month to really dive into it.
Yeah, I can understand that for sure. Is the criminal justice system really set up to handle mental health or autism?
Generally, I think I'd be negligent in talking to anyone in a public forum without mentioning our criminal justice system is not equipped to deal with mental health situations. It is not equipped because lawyers are not trained on this from the start. We are not trained on it throughout our careers. And we are certainly not seeing training on these specific things mandated for the people who maybe need to know the most, which are prosecutors and judges. And to a certain extent in the federal system, the probation officers who are preparing pre-sentence investigation reports, there's almost not even a recognition of
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
Who is Brian Shrader and what is his background in the legal system?
0:35–1:47
2
How does autism affect interactions with law enforcement?
1:47–6:44
3
Is the criminal justice system equipped to handle mental health and autism?
6:44–10:24
4
What are the differences in approach between prosecutors and defenders regarding mental health cases?
10:24–14:52
5
What challenges exist in accessing mental health diversion programs?
14:52–19:41
6
How do first responders misinterpret behaviors related to autism?
19:41–22:43
7
What training is needed for the legal system to better understand autism and mental health?
22:43–28:12
Speakers
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Meg LeDuc: Journey Through Serious Mental Illness:Living Beyond the Diagnosis
Dr Aaron Meyer and Ann Marie Council part 2: Breaking the Cycle: Why Serious Mental Illness Deserves Better Than Jail or the Streets
Lois Brady: Publishing Autism Digest and Exploring Real Stories and Experiences