Urban Wire The Criminal Legal System Fails to Address Black Disabled People’s Intersectional Identities
Lily Robin, Evelyn F. McCoy
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A wheelchair-bound man wearing a t-shirt with I can't breathe written on it, takes part in a demonstration near the White House while protesting against police brutality and racism.

Black and disabled people have experienced violence, abuse, and death within the criminal legal system for decades. Some of these incidents make the news—like the case of Darren Rainey, who died after being forced into a scalding shower in prison, and Natasha McKenna, who died from cardiac arrest after jail officers excessively used a stun gun on her. But many more of these stories likely go unreported.

There are limited data on the number of Black people with disabilities involved in the criminal legal system. But because of structural racism and systematic disinvestment in Black communities, Black people are overrepresented in carceral institutions. Disabled people, too, are disproportionately likely to be incarcerated and are often criminalized for behaviors related to their disability. And disability is prevalent in Black communities, often stemming from environmental injustices, which can lead to disparate health outcomes worsened by racism in health care. All of this suggests there could be a significant population of Black people with disabilities in the system. Yet, Black disabled people are historically overlooked and underresearched.

Learning how many Black disabled people are incarcerated and what challenges they face is the first step to meeting their needs, lessening the harms inflicted upon them, and reducing the number involved in the criminal legal system. The next step is developing evidence-based policy solutions that address the intersecting racism and ableism Black disabled people experience.

The criminal legal system disproportionately affects Black people and disabled people

Though data exist on justice involvement by race and disability, limited research covers the intersection of these experiences. We know:

Prisons and jails fail to address Black and disabled people’s needs

Disabled people frequently lack necessary care, services, and accommodations during incarceration, including medical care for their disabilities, mental health services, and language interpretation. Correctional facilities often inappropriately place people with disabilities in solitary confinement to substitute for lack of accommodations. As a result, incarcerated people with disabilities and mental health conditions are often subject to neglect and use of force and are at a higher risk for sexual violence behind bars.

Black incarcerated people are also less likely to receive mental health services and more likely to experience solitary confinement. Solitary confinement causes psychological harm and can be especially detrimental for someone with a physical disability.

Upon reentry, regulations that limit access to housing and employment opportunities can be insurmountable barriers for disabled people who already face accessibility barriers in these settings. These barriers may be exacerbated for Black disabled people who experience racial discrimination when searching for housing and employment.

Without knowing how many Black disabled people have been in carceral settings and directly speaking with them, research and policy cannot directly address their intersectional challenges.

How to apply an intersectional lens to research and policymaking

Researchers who study the criminal legal system and policymakers who design policies for it often don’t approach it with an intersectional lens. As a result, policies designed to protect a group of people fail to protect everyone in it.

The Sandra Bland Act originally intended to address both mental health and criminal legal system practices rooted in systemic racism, such as racial profiling, police stops, and searches, arrests for offenses punishable by fines. But ultimately, the provisions that sought to address systemic racism were stripped and thus failed to recognize Bland’s intersectional identities, which were important factors in the violent traffic stop that resulted in her detainment.

Here are six ways researchers and policymakers can take an intersectional approach to their work to improve outcomes for Black disabled people in the criminal legal system:

  1. Fill data gaps to better understand the number of people who are both Black and have a disability in the criminal legal system, and their experiences at different decisions points of the criminal legal system (at arrest and during court proceedings, incarceration, and reentry).
  2. Identify best practices to reduce frequent police contact with Black people with disabilities and increase alternatives to incarceration.
  3. Support efforts to reduce jail and prison populations nationwide and increase community-based supports for Black disabled people.
  4. Assess strategies and interventions in the criminal legal system for demographic disparities, including impacts on communities of intersecting identities.
  5. Collaborate across systems to address root causes, such as unequal exposure to environmental pollution, access to physical and mental health care, and challenges in disability diagnosis, education, and housing (PDF) that put Black disabled people at higher risk of justice involvement.
  6. Engage directly with Black disabled people and include them in decisionmaking.
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Research and Evidence Justice and Safety Health Policy Tax and Income Supports
Expertise Health Care Coverage, Access, and Affordability Victim Safety and Justice Justice Systems Data and Analytics Courts, Corrections, and Reentry
Tags Behavioral health and justice Black/African American communities Corrections Crime and justice analytics Disability and long-term care Health equity Wealth inequality Mass incarceration Racial and ethnic disparities Racial and ethnic disparities in criminal justice Racial inequities in health Disability equity policy
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