For Sonya and Ashlynn: How disability criminalization harms Black women and girls

The first blog in this series defined and discussed ableism and how it is a critical driver of criminalization for Black women and girls. The data shows that Black women and girls with disabilities are overrepresented in the criminal and juvenile legal systems. Moreover, the majority of Black women and girls impacted by those systems have one or more disabilities. 

In many cases, disabled Black women and girls are criminalized and/or punished as a direct result of their disabilities. This is especially the case with disabilities that have an impact on behavior, communication, and/or understanding. 

Historically, people with cognitive, mental, and/or behavioral disabilities were often held in public or private mental hospitals, keeping them segregated from the public. The involuntary nature and inhumane conditions of such confinement, along with the development of more outpatient treatment options like medication, eventually generated public and state support for deinstitutionalization. Deinstitutionalization decreased reliance on facilities like mental hospitals to hold and treat people with mental illnesses while increasing the availability of community-based treatment. 

Unfortunately, deinstitutionalization came without adequate reinvestment in alternative care networks for those with mental or behavioral health concerns. In practice, it placed disabled people into unprepared communities without the necessary programs or resources to provide care and support. Homelessness and substance use among people with disabilities increased and, in turn, multiplied encounters with police. Over time, jails and prisons have replaced mental hospitals as the largest mental health and substance use “service providers” in the United States, though a large portion of incarcerated people with a history of mental illness still do not receive care. In practice, deinstitutionalization has exchanged one involuntary confinement setting for another. However, this was not an equivalent exchange. Rather than hospitals, which operate with a primary purpose to  provide medical care, disabled people are held in jails and prisons created with the explicit purpose of punishment–and we know these settings to be particularly harmful for Black women and girls.

The criminalization of disabled people is also aided by the fact that police are often first-responders to people in crisis, even in situations where no crime has been committed. The presence of police can escalate a crisis, and general policing practices prioritize absolute compliance, regardless of an individual’s physical, mental, or emotional ability to comply. Failure to behave in the way officers expect or demand is often read as a threat by law enforcement, resulting in escalation, arrest, violence, or even death for people with disabilities. 

For example, in 2024, Sonya Massey, a Black disabled woman diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, called police, believing that there was a prowler lurking around her home. After an exchange with a sheriff’s deputy over a pot of water boiling in the kitchen, she was shot three times and died soon after. 

In the days and hours preceding her death, Sonya had multiple contacts with law enforcement, one as a result of her mother calling 911 for help after being advised to do so by a mental health professional. While hesitant to call the police, Sonya’s mother had no alternative. This is often the case when family members seek emergency help for their loved ones with disabilities. What they need is care, but police involvement often carries a significant risk of harm; researchers estimate that disabled people make up between 30-50% of those killed by police.

This has led many to advocate for and develop community-based crisis response programs, which prioritize civilian professionals being first responders to 911 calls made for behavioral health concerns, public disturbance, substance use, homelessness, and other such areas. Such programs could divert between 21% and 38% of 911 calls from police to community response.

School discipline and Black girls with disabilities

Black girls with and without disabilities are overrepresented relative to their enrollment in every discipline sanction and disciplined at higher rates than their white and other non-Black peers. However, recent analysis from the National Black Women’s Justice Institute zeroes in on the heightened impact of exclusionary discipline on Black disabled girls, who, compared to Black girls without disabilities and disabled white girls, are disciplined at elevated rates. Despite laws meant to protect students with disabilities from discrimination and ensure their access to a quality education, Black girls with disabilities are often disciplined at school as a direct result of their disability and victimized by school-based police (often called “school resource officers”/SROs).

For example, Ashlynn Avery fell asleep at her desk while serving an in-school suspension due to a combination of chronic medical conditions. This escalated into an aggressive encounter with an officer, who she says first woke her up by hitting the cubicle she was in, causing it to hit her head. When she fell asleep again, he slammed her book on her desk, told her to leave the classroom, and followed her. After Ashlynn told the officer to leave her alone, he pushed her into a file cabinet and arrested her. On the way to the police station, Ashlynn vomited and later sought hospital treatment for her injuries, one of which resulted in her wearing a cast for a month.

Physical injuries might be temporary, but the harms perpetrated against Black girls with disabilities when they are targeted and punished in schools extend far beyond the moment itself. Black girls in studies conducted across the country have consistently reported feeling unsafe at school at higher rates than other girls, and school policing incidents – like the one Ashlynn Avery was involved in – are a major contributor. Across the country, youth are organizing to prevent incidents like these by advocating for police-free schools.

When episodes inherent to one’s disability result in criminalization and punishment, it reinforces an ableist message that people with disabilities are not permitted to exist in public alongside non-disabled people. Black women and girls with disabilities deserve safety, compassionate care, and access to resources and opportunities to flourish, thrive, and lead without restriction or harm. 

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