DisCrim Resources

Explore Our DisCrim Work

This page features our resources focused on the criminalization of disability (DisCrim), including research, legal and policy analysis, public education materials, and other tools. Please click here to explore our full resource library and filter resources by issue area, author, or year.

Beyond the Golden Gate: IDEA at 50 and the Future of Inclusive Education in California

Kate Caldwell

May 7, 2026

Center for Racial & Disability Justice

Explore the state of inclusive education in California through a disability justice lens, examining disparities in inclusion, discipline, racial disproportionality, restraint and seclusion, and youth policing 50 years after IDEA.

Citation

Caldwell, K. (2026, May 7). Beyond the Golden Gate: IDEA at 50 and the Future of Inclusive Education in California. Center for Racial and Disability Justice, University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.

DisCrim in Education Brief

Kate Caldwell, Jamelia Morgan, Karima Itayem

February 12, 2026

Center for Racial & Disability Justice

This brief exposes how schools criminalize disability, especially for students of color, by responding to disability and trauma with punishment, surveillance, and law enforcement instead of support, tracing how these practices feed the school-prison nexus and arguing for transformative, justice-centered approaches to education.

Citation

Caldwell, K., Morgan, J., and Itayem, K. (2026, January). Discrim in Education Brief. Center for
Racial and Disability Justice, University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. [Brief].

The photo appears to be taken from police body-camera footage. It shows a nighttime scene on the front porch of a light-colored house. A woman stands in the open doorway, illuminated by the warm indoor light behind her. She is wearing a long, light robe or dressing gown over patterned pajama pants and slippers, and she is holding a cell phone to her ear. Facing her, on the porch, stands a uniformed sheriff’s deputy in dark tactical gear. He is significantly taller and positioned in shadow, the beam of his flashlight cast on the porch floor.

When a Call for Help Becomes Lethal: The Case of Sonya Massey and the Criminalization of Disability

CRDJ Staff

November 5, 2025

Center for Racial & Disability Justice

This blog examines how the police killing of Sonya Massey illustrates how disability, race, and gender converge in deadly encounters—and calls for reimagining mental health crisis response and ending the criminalization of disability.

Citation

Center for Racial and Disability Justice. (2025, November 5). When a call for help becomes lethal: The case of Sonya Massey and the criminalization of disability. Medium.

A split-screen illustration shows two contrasting scenes. On the left, a colorful image depicts a cheerful suburban neighborhood with green trees, a yellow house, and smiling families and children interacting outdoors. Above it, text reads “H.R. 4022 Increasing Behavioral Health Treatment Act.” On the right, the tone shifts to grayscale: a somber figure sits hunched on a chair before a barred window, with an institutional-looking building resembling an asylum in the background. The heading above reads “The Return of Asylums.” The torn-paper divide between the two halves emphasizes the stark contrast between community-based care and institutional confinement.

The Return of Asylums: Why H.R.4022 Endangers Disability Rights

CRDJ Staff

October 6, 2025

Center for Racial & Disability Justice

This blog examines how H.R. 4022 would fast track funding for institutions while leaving community care underfunded, undermining the disability community’s right to live in integrated, self-directed settings.

Citation

Center for Racial and Disability Justice. (2025, October 6). The return of asylums: Why H.R.4022 endangers disability rights. Medium.

A person in a lab coat is shown touching a glowing square labeled “AI” with their index finger, symbolizing artificial intelligence. Around the hand are holographic digital elements including DNA or RNA sequences made of letters (A, T, C, G, U), a 3D molecular structure, and an outline of a human figure. The overall image conveys the concept of AI integration in biotechnology, genetics, or medical research, blending human touch with advanced digital analysis.

When Health Becomes a Crime

Kate Caldwell

September 24, 2025

Chicago Tribune

Published in the Chicago Tribune; originally titled “When Health Becomes a Crime: The Dangerous Convergence of Trump’s Health Data & Policing Policies.”

Citation

Caldwell, K. (2025, September 24). How our health information can be used to criminalize us. Chicago Tribune.

Disability Criminalization: A Primer

Jamelia Morgan, Samantha Santoro

September 2, 2025

American Criminal Law Review

This article provides a short primer on disability criminalization. It defines the concept before turning to key sites where disability criminalization occurs.

Citation

Santoro, S. & Morgan, J. N. (2025). Disability criminalization: A primer. American Criminal Law Review, 62, 1127-1149.

When Health Becomes a Crime

CRDJ Staff

August 8, 2025

Center for Racial & Disability Justice

How Trump-era policies use AI and federal data sharing to merge health data with policing, criminalize mental health and disability, and reinforce eugenic narratives that endanger disabled people, immigrants, and communities of color.

Citation

Center for Racial and Disability Justice. (2025, August 8). When health becomes a crime [Infographic].

From Care to Confinement: What ‘Crime & Disorder’ Really Means

CRDJ Staff

July 25, 2025

Center for Racial & Disability Justice

Trump’s new Executive Order threatens disabled, unhoused, and marginalized communities by expanding civil commitment and carceral responses—learn why matters and what’s at stake.

Citation

Center for Racial and Disability Justice. (2025, July 25). From care to confinement: What “crime & disorder” really means [Infographic].

A photo of a carceral facility with a lit hallway on the right of the image and a wall of barred cell walls framing the left of the image.

Examining the Justice System’s Impact on Disabled People

MacArthur Foundation

July 17, 2025

MacArthur Foundation

Access Living, Activating Change, Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, and CRDJ have published a series of reports, with support from MacArthur, examining the overrepresentation of disabled people in local justice systems.

Citation

MacArthur Foundation. (2025, July 17). Examining the justice system’s impact on disabled people [Press release].

A photo of a man standing next to a chain link fence is the background, with white text highlighted by an orange background reading "An Intersectional Approach to Advocacy on Prison and Jail Conditions." The background fades into a gradient navy blue color, which is overlaid by all-white logos for the Safety + Justice Challenge and the Center for Racial and Disability Justice.

New Access Living Paper on Disability and Jail Decarceration

Amber Smock

June 23, 2025

Access Living

Access Living lists CRDJ's report on prison advocacy for the MacArthur Safety + Justice Challenge.

Citation

Smock, A. (2025, June 23). New Access Living paper on disability and jail decarceration [Press release]. Access Living.

A group of five protestors wearing white shirts reading “No One Is Illegal On Stolen Land” are holding signs and a Mexican flag in opposition of the ICE interventions in Los Angeles. They are standing in front of a repeating pattern of grayed-out megaphones — the pattern, itself, obscuring a black and white image of a demonstration where protestors have blocked highway access.

The Spectacle & The System: What the LA Protests Reveal About Power, Surveillance & Resistance

CRDJ Staff

June 13, 2025

Center for Racial & Disability Justice

The use of overwhelming force in response to grassroots resistance, especially by immigrants and communities of color, follows a long tradition of silencing those at the margins.

Citation

Center for Racial and Disability Justice. (2025, June 13). The spectacle & the system: What the LA protests reveal about power, surveillance & resistance. Medium.

Screenshot of the Down to the Struts podcast episode "Disability and Punishment" on Spotify, dated May 27.

Down to the Struts, Season 10, Episode 3: Disability and Punishment

Qudsiya Naqui, Jamelia Morgan

May 28, 2025

Down to the Struts

Jamelia Morgan joined host Qudsiya Naqui on Down to the Struts to discuss the intersection of race, disability, and the criminal legal system, CRDJ’s vision and work, and how disability justice and abolition are intrinsically connected.

Citation

Naqui, Q. (Host). (Season 10, Episode 3). Disability and punishment [Audio podcast episode featuring Jamelia Morgan]. In Down to the Struts. www.downtothestruts.com

CRDJ Executive Director Jordyn Jensen speaks into a microphone while addressing the Global Criminalization of Disability workshop crowd at the Harkin Summit 2024. On either side of her sit Director of Research & Policy Kate Caldwell and Civic Planning & Design Manager Dimitri Nesbitt - fellow workshop facilitators. They are seated on a stage branded with a Harkin backdrop. To the left of them is an American Sign Language interpreter who is facing the crowd, and in front of a projected presentation on disability criminalization in the United States.

Harkin Summit 2024 Workshop Explores the Global Criminalization of Disability

Dimitri Nesbitt, Jordyn Jensen

March 17, 2025

Center for Racial & Disability Justice

The workshop examined global insights on disability criminalization and explored potential paths to justice.

Citation

Nesbitt, D., & Jensen, J. (2025, March 17). Harkin Summit 2024 workshop explores the global criminalization of disability. Medium.

How Is Disability Criminalized?

CRDJ Staff

June 12, 2024

Center for Racial & Disability Justice

Disabled people, especially disabled people of color, experience disproportionately high rates of criminalization. Learn about how the criminalization of disability is built into the design of our society's structures.

Citation

Center for Racial and Disability Justice. (2024, June 12). How is disability criminalized? [Infographic].

Split image showing a stark solitary confinement prison cell on the left and a protest scene on the right with signs reading "California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement."

California Could Soon Reform Solitary Confinement—Unless Gavin Newsom Intervenes

Julia Métraux

July 7, 2023

Mother Jones

In Mother Jones, Jamelia Morgan emphasizes that disability justice requires understanding how race and disability together increase vulnerability to solitary confinement.

Citation

Metraux, J. (2023, July 7). California could soon reform solitary confinement—Unless Gavin Newsom intervenes. Mother Jones.

Photo of someone holding up a poster with a photo of Jordan Neely on it at Jordan Neely's memorial. It shows a high school graduation photo of a young Black teenager smiling.

The US Failed Jordan Neely and Banko Brown Long Before They Were Murdered

Jamelia Morgan, Subini Ancy Annamma, Jyoti Nanda, Brian Cabral

May 17, 2023

Truthout

In Truthout, Jamelia Morgan and co-authors highlight how carceral systems failed Neely and Brown, urging investment in care over punishment.

Citation

Morgan, J., Annamma, S. A., Nanda, J., & Cabral, B. (2023, May 17). The U.S. failed Jordan Neely and Banko Brown long before they were murdered. Truthout.

Photo of Jamelia Morgan, a Black woman with braids smiling in front of a background of green leaves.

Preventing racism and ableism from impacting people's daily lives

Max Witynski

March 24, 2023

Northwestern Now

In Northwestern Now, Jamelia Morgan shares her vision for CRDJ and its mission to challenge racism, ableism, and carceral systems through community-based advocacy.

Citation

Witynski, M. (2023, March 23). Preventing racism and ableism from impacting people’s daily lives. Northwestern Now.

Body camera image provided by Sedgwick County where police put Cedric "C.J." Lofton in restraints

Youth Incarceration Harms America's Children. It's Time to End It

Jamelia Morgan, Subini Ancy Annamma, Jyoti Nanda

October 13, 2022

TIME

In TIME, Jamelia Morgan and co-authors call to end youth incarceration and invest in community-based care.

Citation

Morgan, J., Annamma, S. A., & Nanda, J. (2022, October 13). Youth incarceration harms America’s children. It’s time to end it. TIME.

Disability, Policing, and Punishment: An Intersectional Approach

Jamelia Morgan

September 1, 2022

Oklahoma Law Review

In this essay, I provide a contemporary intersectional analysis of race, gender, and disability — namely, the experiences of disabled people of color in the criminal legal system, with a particular focus on policing and punishment systems.

Citation

Morgan, J. (2022). Disability, Policing, and Punishment: An Intersectional Approach. Okla. L. Rev., 75, 169.

Disability's Fourth Amendment

Jamelia Morgan

June 27, 2022

Columbia Law Review

In the article, I discuss the ways in which disability mediates interactions with law enforcement and how Fourth Amendment doctrine renders disabled people vulnerable to police intrusions and police violence.

Citation

Morgan, J. (2022). Disability’s Fourth Amendment. Columbia Law Review, 122(2), 489-581.

Why Disability Studies in Criminal Law and Procedure?

Jamelia Morgan

July 15, 2021

Journal of Legal Education

In this essay, I offer some ideas for how law professors can incorporate critical discussions of disability into their substantive criminal law and criminal procedure courses.

Citation

Morgan, J. N. (2021). Why Disability Studies in Criminal Law and Procedure?. J. Legal Educ., 71, 124.

Policing Marginality in Public Space

Jamelia Morgan

April 2, 2021

Ohio State Law Journal

In this essay, I suggest that the housing crisis in particular provides a case study from which to scrutinize some of the historical and ongoing harms that flow from managing access to public space using criminal laws.

Citation

Morgan, J. N. (2020). Policing marginality in public space. Ohio St. LJ, 81, 1045.

Rethinking Disorderly Conduct

Jamelia Morgan

March 11, 2020

California Law Review

This article’s critique demonstrates how disorderly conduct laws define and construct boundaries of communities and offers a site for problematizing unitary models of community in criminal law.

Citation

Morgan, J. N. (2021). Rethinking disorderly conduct. Cal. L. Rev., 109, 1637.