According to the Bureau
of Justice Statistics, 32 percent of federal
prisoners and 40 percent of people in jail have at least one
disability. Using such sources and limited data,
RespectAbility estimates that more than 750,000 people with
disabilities are behind bars in America. This includes
140,000 who are blind or have vision loss, approximately the
same number who are deaf or have significant hearing
impairments and more than 200,000 who have mobility issues.
The largest group, which includes more than half a million
people, has cognitive impairments.
“We need to acknowledge and accommodate for the full range
and large numbers of people with diverse disabilities who
are incarcerated as well,” said Janie Jeffers of Jeffers and
Associates, who is one of the report’s authors and an expert
on crime and prisons. “Failure to adequately and
appropriately deal with these disability issues expands the
cycle of failure, crime and recidivism.”
The authors, who include Jeffers as well as returning
citizen Eddie Ellis Jr. and RespectAbility’s Jennifer Laszlo
Mizrahi and Philip Pauli, argue that for criminal justice
reform to succeed, every stage and effort must take into
account the specific realities and needs of people with
disabilities who are in the school-to-prison pipeline, the
justice system or returning to our communities.
For decades, stories about criminal justice have focused on
race and poverty alone. But this story misses the lens of
what happens to people with disabilities whose parents do
not have the resources to ensure they have correct
disability diagnoses, IEPs and accommodations.
The majority of people behind bars is functionally
illiterate and did not complete high school. Many have
repeatedly been victims of assault, sexual violence,
bullying and low expectations – experiences that can lead to
committing crimes.
“The process starts young, as youth with disabilities only
graduate high school at a rate of
61
percent, compared to 81 percent for people
without disabilities – a 20-point gap in outcomes,” Mizrahi
said. “In addition, children with disabilities, like myself
as I am dyslexic and was raped when I was 12, are
three
times more likely to be victims of rape or sexual
assault than children without disabilities. Victims of
assault are
more
likely to commit crimes.”
Once individuals with a disability are in the system, they
face significant problems including access to counsel, a
lack of accommodations, complex rules, systematic abuse and
solitary confinement. Many are abused behind bars. For
example, people who are deaf or blind are put in solitary
for years as an “accommodation;” however, evidence shows
that this can cause them to have significant mental health
problems.
Eddie B. Ellis Jr. received a dyslexia diagnosis as a child
but did not receive the support he needed in school, leading
to him dropping out and engaging in crime. While
incarcerated, Ellis was never given accommodations or
treatment for his dyslexia or epilepsy.
“I remember having my first seizure in Youngstown, Ohio, in
1997 after being jumped on by some correctional officers and
from that time until I was released, I was never given any
medication or test to see what was happening to me,” said
Ellis, who spent 10 years in solitary confinement for
manslaughter. “Years before, some fellow inmates told me
that I would be talking to them and them go into a daze-like
state, which I found out later could have been signs of
epilepsy. I had a bad seizure around 2009, and I was taken
to the hospital and was told that I do have epilepsy and
they see it in my frontal lobe.”
Upon release, Ellis found ways to educate himself and is now
a productive member of the community serving as a mentor to
other returning citizens in the Washington, D.C., area.
While 95 percent of incarcerated people will be released,
the programs and communities waiting for them are not yet
prepared to provide appropriate supports. Without
appropriate support, two-thirds will end up being
re-incarcerated, with new crime victims in their wake. The
majority of the stories do not end with success like Ellis.
The White House has been pushing for criminal justice reform
from reducing recidivism to meaningful sentencing reform.
White House Senior Advisor
Valerie
Jarrett will be discussing the issue with
America’s mayors at their upcoming annual meeting this
weekend. They will be exploring best practices that mayors
can use in their cities.
The
Coalition for Public Safety – a bipartisan group
from left to right that includes the ACLU, Americans for Tax
Reform, Center for American Progress, Faith and Freedom
Coalition, Freedom Works, The Leadership Conference
Education Fund, NAACP and Right on Crime – is addressing
what they call the U.S.’s “over-criminalization” and
“over-incarceration” problem. More than 60 percent of the
people in prison are now racial and ethnic minorities,
according to the coalition.
But while the Senate is attempting to pass sweeping criminal
justice reforms, not everyone is on board. At a speech to
the Hudson Institute last week,
Sen. Tom
Cotton said the U.S. is suffering from an
“under-incarceration problem.”
As groups push for reform with support from the White House
and many in Congress, RespectAbility is working to ensure
that people with disabilities are not left out of the
discussion.
“We are deeply concerned that so many Americans with
disabilities, especially those of color, are in the criminal
justice system and how many victims this system creates on
all sides,” Pauli said. “Only when the rights and realities
of people with disabilities are recognized and addressed
will they be able to succeed in our communities. People of
color and others from vulnerable populations are especially
at risk because of the intersecting and compounding effects
of racism, ableism and other forms of discrimination.
Criminal justice reform will not succeed unless and until
disability is addressed in all stages of the criminal
justice system from early intervention to reentry and
reintegration.”
For more information, contact:
Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi: 202-365-0787, JenniferM@RespectAbilityUSA.org
Lauren Appelbaum: 202-591-0703, LaurenA@RespectAbilityUSA.org
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