A Failure to Accommodate

Abstract

This chapter examines the overrepresentation of individuals with disabilities in our criminal legal system in policing, the courts, corrections, reentry, and as victims of crime. Individuals who have disabilities face discrimination throughout every level of the criminal legal system. This is especially true at the intersection of race, class, and disability. The system rarely makes appropriate accommodations, which produces additional inequality. Furthermore, over time the protections of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) have been eroded by the courts, thus exacerbating inequalities.