Disability rights and disability justice in prison: the limits of state-protected rights and the possibilities of mutual support

Abstract

Disabled persons are grossly overrepresented among incarcerated persons in U.S. prisons and likely to continue to grow as a group. Prisons are increasingly responsible for protecting the rights of incarcerated persons with disabilities, which includes the provision of accommodations and care. On the basis of thirteen qualitative interviews with persons with disabilities, personal care assistants, and others in a California state prison, the research subjects not only revealed the limits of disability rights in prison, but ways in which corrections officers used accommodations and personal assistance as means of harassing disabled inmates. Despite the failure of rights, persons with disabilities and their allies found ways to access care through mutual relationships and informal networks. This finding supports a disability justice perspective that argues that argues state-sponsored rights have failed specifically marginalized persons with disabilities, but also argues that disability emancipation can be found through peer-based mutual care.