The Wire

Foetal alcohol Syndrome can cause slight mental retardation and an inability to see behaviour as wrong. Although courts in Canada and the US regularly test for this syndrome in young offenders, Scott Wilson from the Aboriginal Drug and Alcohol Council and Sue Miers from the National Organisation for Foetal Alcohol Spectrum and related disorders argue that in Australia completely ignores it as a possible explanation for crime and provides no diagnosis or rehabilitation and thus condemn sufferers to a life in and out of gaol.