Challenges around mental illness and disability persist in all aspects of life, often stemming from misinformation, stigma, and barriers that have been built into our society and its institutions over time. Our society’s history with respect to mental disorders was discussed in Chapter 1 of this text. This chapter provides an overview of the law, including both statutes and court decisions, that marks a departure from that history and attempts to address some of the challenges faced by people with disabilities, a term used throughout the text to include any conditions of the body or mind that make it more difficult for a person to do certain activities and interact with the world (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). This body of law has been created over recent decades, mostly intended to reduce barriers and prohibit discrimination, with the goal of ensuring that people who experience disabilities, including mental disorders, are not excluded from society’s opportunities.

Laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) empower people with disabilities to assert and protect their right to access places, services, and opportunities. Those empowered and protected by disability laws include people with mental disorders, and they extend into the criminal justice system to apply to the population that is the subject of our text. In this chapter you will learn about some of the most important laws and legal decisions that protect individuals with disabilities, especially the criminal justice system. You will learn about some of the specific ways these laws impact people with mental disorders, and how these protections are enforced.