In August 2025 at the FASD conference in Tāmaki Makaurau, Dr Valerie McGinn of The FASD Centre, along with FASD specialist Sam Galloway, presented a glimpse into the Criminal Justice System (CJS) in Aotearoa NZ for those within it who have FASD. They also introduced the targeted pilot programme they have set up to help these inmates avoid reoffending once released.
The talk was presented clinically and professionally as would be expected from Aotearoa NZ's leading forensic neuropsychologist, but the subject matter was emotional for the 300+ audience members.
It's clear that with FASD-informed police and justice kaimahi / staff involvement from the the beginning of an individual's interactions with the CJS, many of those with FASD could be kept out of prison in the first place. It's even clearer that at a cost of around $200K per annum per person to keep an offender in prison, it is better in every respect for the individual to be proactively re-integrated back into society wherever possible – by a team who understand the specific needs of people with FASD.
Dr McGinn has written a short article about the pilot programme for FASD-CAN.
