Overcriminalization of People with Disabilities Must Be Addressed in Criminal Justice Reform

Published: 2016-07-19 - Updated: 2020-03-17
Author: Center for American Progress | Contact: americanprogress.org
Peer-Reviewed Publication: N/A
Library: Disability Information Publications

Synopsis: Report puts disability issues in perspective within criminal justice reform, highlighting steps to combat inappropriate and unjust incarceration and criminalization of people with disabilities, and ensure appropriate and humane treatment of people with disabilities throughout the justice system. Following a long history of disinvestment in community-based care for mental health and disability, the United States has traded one form of mass institutionalization for another. People behind bars in state and federal prisons are nearly 3 times as likely, and those behind bars in jails are more than 4 times as likely to report having a disability than the general population.

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As bipartisan momentum around criminal justice reform continues to grow in Congress and across the United States, at least one group has been largely absent from the conversation, despite being dramatically over-represented in the nation's prisons and jails today: Americans with disabilities.

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The Center for American Progress has released a report that puts disability issues in perspective within the current criminal justice reform landscape, highlighting specific steps policymakers can take to combat inappropriate and unjust incarceration and criminalization of people with disabilities, as well as steps to ensure appropriate and humane treatment of people with disabilities throughout the justice system, from police practices to courts, conditions in jails and prisons, and reentry.

Rebecca Vallas, Managing Director of the Poverty to Prosperity program at the Center for American Progress and author of the report, will be discussing this report at a White House Forum focusing on this very topic.

"Following a long history of disinvestment in community-based care for mental health and disability, the United States has traded one form of mass institutionalization for another, with jails and prisons now serving as social service providers of last resort," said Vallas.

"Ending the mass incarceration of people with disabilities will require meaningful investment in the nation's social service and mental health treatment infrastructure to ensure availability and funding for community-based alternatives, so that jails and prisons are no longer forced to serve as social service providers of last resort. But bringing about this change will also require including disability as a key part of the bipartisan conversation on criminal justice reform taking place in Congress, as well as in states and cities across the United States."

This year marks the 17th year since the U.S. Supreme Court declared in Olmstead v. LC that unjustified segregation of people with disabilities in institutional settings is unlawful discrimination in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, which celebrates its 26th anniversary on July 25th. Yet while bipartisan momentum around criminal justice reform continues to grow in Washington and in states and cities across the United States - and in the wake of the past week's horrific events and the again-renewed urgency around the need for police reform - the intersection of criminal justice and disability is all too rarely discussed.

Illustration of three handcuffed prisoners behind prison cell bars.

Themes Explored in CAP's New Report

People with disabilities are dramatically over-represented in the nation's prisons and jails. Individuals behind bars in state and federal prisons are nearly three times as likely, and those behind bars in jails are more than four times as likely to report having a disability than the general population. Fully half of women in jail have a disability.
In addition to facing disproportionate rates of incarceration, people with disabilities are also especially likely to be the victims of police violence. Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, Kristiana Coignard, and Robert Ethan Saylor are but four high-profile examples of a widespread, commonplace experience. While data on police shootings are notably limited, research estimates that people with disabilities comprise between one-third and one-half of all individuals killed by law enforcement.
While behind bars, people with disabilities are often deprived of necessary medical care, as well as needed supports, services, and accommodations, in violation of federal disability rights law. Many inmates with disabilities are held in solitary confinement, often reportedly for their own protection, as a substitute for appropriate accommodations. People with disabilities are also at special risk of brutality at the hands of correctional officers, as well as violence by their fellow inmates.

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Overcriminalization of People with Disabilities Must Be Addressed in Criminal Justice Reform | Center for American Progress (americanprogress.org). Disabled World makes no warranties or representations in connection therewith. Content may have been edited for style, clarity or length.

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Overcriminalization of People with Disabilities Must Be Addressed in Criminal Justice Reform

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Themes Explored in CAP's New Report

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