Increasing numbers of special needs offenders reflect the proportionate growth of the general incarcerated population. Prevention should be aimed at working with local school districts to identify youth with learning problems who may eventually drop out of school. Many of the developmentally disabled and learning disabled persons who end up in the juvenile and criminal justice systems do not belong there. Alternatives to incarceration for the learning disabled, special housing for the developmentally disabled, and diversionary programs are the approaches which the justice and social service systems must cooperatively take. Advocacy on behalf of the individual and the systems that must cope with disabled offenders, as well as training and awareness for professionals, are also key elements in dealing with the problem. Two brief case histories are presented, and a training program for criminal justice and human service professionals containing the following elements is described: (1) sensitivity to the issues of the disabled offender; (2) education of specific groups in reference to their particular concerns regarding the disabled offender; (3) training of these groups in specific strategies for dealing with learning and developmentally disabled offenders. (JW)