3.6 Summary
- The law, in the form of both statutes and case law (court decisions) has been critical in curbing discrimination based on disability and enabling disabled people to access opportunities.
- Since the 1960s, laws have provided financial opportunities; insurance coverage; access to education; access to housing, jobs, and services; and otherwise attempted to reduce barriers that have impacted people with disabilities, including mental disorders, in all aspects of life.
- Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act was the first law that recognized the civil rights of people with disabilities, in 1973. This Act, and the laws that followed, were a product of the Disability Rights Movement that began in the 1970s and continues into the present.
- The Americans with Disabilities Act (the ADA), passed in 1990, creates access for people with disabilities. It has been amended to clarify its application to people with mental disorders, or psychiatric disabilities, whether or not a particular person’s condition is medicated or otherwise managed at a given moment.
- The ADA applies in the criminal justice system, which is composed of government entities specifically regulated by Title II of the ADA. The ADA requires that the criminal justice system accommodate the reasonable needs of people with disabilities in the system.
- The legal rights of people with disabilities in the criminal justice system may be enforced by the United States Department of Justice (the DOJ). DOJ investigations and lawsuits are intended to force change in state and local government agencies.
- Individual lawsuits can also vindicate rights under the ADA and other laws. One of the most important private lawsuits impacting people with disabilities, inside and outside of the criminal justice system, was Olmstead v. LC (1999). Olmstead established the rule that people with disabilities cannot be unnecessarily segregated from other members of their community due to their disabilities.
3.6.1 Key Terms
- Ableism: A set of beliefs or practices that devalue and discriminate against people with physical, intellectual, or psychiatric disabilities and often rests on the assumption that disabled people need to be ‘fixed’ in one form or the other [Source].
- Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities.
- Civil Rights: Civil rights are personal rights guaranteed and protected by the U.S. Constitution and federal laws enacted by Congress, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Civil rights include protection from unlawful discrimination [Source].
- Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA): A federal law that allows the federal government to protect the civil rights of people who are in a facility such as a jail, prison, juvenile hall, or state hospital.
- Deliberate indifference: A legal standard that must be proven for enforcement of civil rights in many criminal justice cases. For example, a prison official may be “deliberately indifferent” if they know of a substantial risk of harm to a prisoner, but choose not to take action to avoid that harm. An example would be an ongoing failure to provide any medical care to a known very sick prisoner.
- Disability: a physical or mental condition that substantially limits one or more major life activities. A person’s environment influences the impact of a disability.
- Discrimination: The categorical exclusion based on a person’s status
- Failure to accommodate: A form of disability discrimination in the criminal justice system that means not providing a disabled person with the accommodations that they need. This may include not providing a mobility device to an incarcerated person who needs one, or not providing a deaf person who has been arrested with alternate means to communicate.
- Failure to train: A basis for a legal claim against a criminal justice agency to hold the agency or supervisors liable for officers’ violation of rights. For example, employer of an officer who uses excessive force to arrest a citizen may be liable for failure to train the officer on appropriate use of force.
- Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): Established “special education” services for children who experience disabilities that impact their ability to learn and function in school. IDEA requires that they be provided with an inclusive education.
- Medical model of disability: A disability is perceived as an impairment in a body system or function that is inherently pathological. This differs from the Social Model, which suggests that the environment creates the handicaps and barriers– not the disability [Source].
- Psychiatric disability: Mental disorders that cause disability, or limit one or more major life activities.
- Reasonable accommodations: An adjustment or modification that meets the needs of the disabled person, but does not place an excessive burden on the person providing the accommodation.
- Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act: A federal law protecting people with disabilities in certain federal government contexts. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act was significant for providing individual rights to people with disabilities to access education and employment opportunities.
- Social model of disability: In the social model, disability is seen as one aspect of a person’s identity, much like race/ethnicity, gender, etc. It is the environment that creates the handicaps and barriers, not the disability [Source].
- U.S. Department of Justice: The federal agency that enforces laws of the United States.
- Wrongful arrest: This is the basis for a legal claim that an arrest of a person is unlawful and unreasonable. For example, a person exhibiting signs of a disability who is arrested because an officer unreasonably believes they are intoxicated may claim wrongful arrest.
3.6.2 Discussion Questions
- Identify the different branches of government that were (and are) involved in establishing the civil rights of people with disabilities. How does activism play a role in governmental action and societal change, and how do activists interact with the different branches of government?
- What is ableism, and how does it impact people with mental disorders? What examples of ableism have you seen in your community, your school or workplace, or in the media?
- The Olmstead case described in the text was significant in clarifying the rights of people with mental disorders to be free of overly-restrictive living environments. How might the principles of the Olmstead case apply to people with mental disorders in the criminal justice world?
- Is it important that people with mental disorders are considered part of the larger disability community? How might this perspective impact outcomes for these individuals? What impact is there for the disability community?