From the Nations Capital to wherever you are, the opinions that matter most, your own. This is what democracy looks like. Cspan powered by cable. Good afternoon everyone. Please take your seats so we can get started. Thank you. My name is Kristin Clarke attorney general at the department of justice and i am pleased to be here to celebrate the anniversary of the americans with disabilities act. [applause] [cheering] i want to acknowledge all of our distinguished guests, congressman hoyer, the chair of the eeoc, thehe department leads and we are pleased to host all of you today. Thirtythree years ago, congress sought to safeguard the rights of people with disabilities to fully participate in all aspects of society and to assure equality of opportunity. Independent living and economic selfsufficiency. This landmark law has supported countless numbers of people with disabilities the opportunity to vote without architectural barriers to work. To live in their own Home Communities instead of shuttered away and institutional settings. Today we celebrate on the Real Progress that has been achieved and reflect on the hard work that remains to be done. One area that demands greater attention and focus however because the interaction between people with disabilities and the criminal Justice System. Its what brings us all here together. Millions of disabled people have undesired and unnecessary interactions with Law Enforcement in our country. Those associated with Behavioral Health issues, he died in a jail for days after being arrested for trespassing and failure tosp appear in court on previous charges. Im talking about a white man in minneapolis who was in his own front yard shirtless, shoeless in pajama pants and experiencing. Im talking about a young black man with psychosis that caused him to believe that his father owned a store where he sold 5,000 with of snacks. He was arrested and placed in solitary confinement for 100 days while awaiting an evaluation on his competency to stand trial. He was subverted to a solitary confinement in a virginia prison when he entered a Police Officer stopped and restrained him following a suspicious person report. Im talking about abraham, a deaf black man arrested on charges of stealing an ipad. He was jailed for 40 days without access to a sign language interpreter. People with speech disabilities also. We cant provide them with effectivee communication. For many people with Mental Health disabilities, Substance Use disorders and developmental disabilities, we are at a split screen moment in history. Many are thriving in the community and are truly integrated in all aspects the public likes. Work, school, recreation, transportation, and has no negative interaction with of the criminal Justice System. But unfortunately, many others are entangled in that. Congress tried to cure 33 years ago with passage of the ada. This is discrimination. Isolation, segregation and relegation for the services with their programs and ultimately their opportunities. Racism, poverty, intergenerational trauma have come into play causing further harm to the experiences of people with disabilities. And i want to be clear when we talk about thek criminalization of people with disabilities in the country, we are talking about the Racial Justice issue. In the United States, 50 of People Killed by Law Enforcement are disabled. And more than half the disabled africanamericans that have been arrested by the time they turned 28. Not just people who experience police introductions but also those that experience incarceration. The blood to the statistics speak for themselves about a quarter of people in jail and 14 in prison have a Mental Illness compared to about 6 of all adults. Based on the 2021 incarcerated population, that means that over 330,000 people with serious Mental Illness are behind bars today. Once incarcerated, people are also 1. 7 times more likely to spend extended time in solitary confinement and 7. 4 times more likely to die by suicide. We see the same patterns when you become involved or entangled with police. While police with serious, they are involved in as many as 10 of all police calls and make up 17 of all uses of force and 20 of people injured in police interactions. Even more disturbing, about one fourth of all people have been people experiencing Mental Health issues, people with disabilities are often to the criminal Justice System revolving door of the repeated gail omissions and continued oversight with few offcampus services that have been proven to stop the cycle or prevent it from occurring in the first place. The critical and Effective Services also in short supply including mobile crisis teams that respond quickly to people in crisis and can help to deescalate the situation. It provides a housing subsidy and supportive services. Piers support Services Provided by people who through their own lens experienced through Mental Health or Substance Use disorder provides. They have the right to live in their own home and communities without the threat of arrest or incarceration. Segregation or institutionalization. Inua the last two years. Weve mounted litigation. Weve secured consent decrees while issuing guidance with federal partners to address the criminalization for example, we found that in louisville land minneapolis, we saw. Having a Specialized Health response rather than the law response. And certainly in emergencies where someone is experiencing a heart attack or a stroke or other trauma, just the same. A specialized response to Behavioral Health needs is similarlyar needed in the count. Mobile crisis teams have long recognized, have long been recognized as effective in resolving immediate crisis. We will seek appropriate alternative responses for people with Behavioral Health issues. We also had pending investigations in Oklahoma City and phoenix, where we are examining the same issues. But i want to say a brief word about the role of these. States are critical to ensure they can succeed in the community and to help prevent Law Enforcement encounters altogether. When a state Mental Health systems rely on institutionalization and local Law Enforcement responses rather than providing longterm services, they may run afoul of the integration mandate. In 2021, we found that they failed to provide a Safe Services leading to less hospitalization investigation and incarceration. Louisville ad oklahoma kentucky provide communitybased services in this for incarceration for people with mental disabilities. This build groundbreaking work for we Security Council that will list Police Involved lines possible new service away for these Crisis Services where appropriate. This division has been busy filing private litigation over the past year to ensure courts are appropriately interpreting and applying the law in this area. We waiting on a case for young black man in a Mental Health crisis of mcdonalds and was shot 23 times and weighed in on a case against the School District on behalf of kids with disabilities who were removed after experiencing Behavioral Health challenges and a 16yearold with autism and louisiana who died while first defendants were responding to the childs disability related episode or outburst. And all three of these, the facts alleged scenarios where modification such as deescalation or alternative response may have invented tragic outcomes. We recently secured in ohio for police discriminated against the driver with a mobility disability removed him from his car even though he didnt have his wheelchair with him with reasonable notifications available that would allow him to safely get out. Behavioral healthcare jails and prisons use restricted help and denial opportunity for programming they violate the constitution and the ada. We are enforcing nine settlements regarding the correctional facilities and an additional five ongoing investigations. Solomons call for connections to Community Services so people have critical Behavioral Healthcare they need upon release. Finally, while not directly related to criminal justice issues appropriate today, i want to bring to your attention to key piece of work on this anniversary. Last friday the Justice Department had a proposed rule of accessibility, long overdue. [applause] [applause] is important rule with technical standards for mobile app accessibility and services, programs and activities of state and local government and believe this proposed rule is finalized will have a Transformative Impact making Public Services and programs equally available across our country. Through vigorous enforcement of aca, partnerships with the criminal Justice Community and Racial Justice advocates and greater awareness, low true inclusion equality for people with disabilities. Attorney general Merrick Garland could not be here today but we will hear recorded remarks from the home is important anniversary. [applause] often. Im sorry i cannot be with you in person today but i did not want to miss this opportunity to welcome you to the department of justice. Thirty tomorrow with disabilities act was signed into law. The landmark civil rights law should in a new era for greater participation in the inclusion, independent living and opportunity for people with disabilities. The ada has been transformative, Opening Doors and removing barriers in nearly all aspects of life including recruiting, housing, education, employment, healthcare, transportation, rental and family rights and voting to name just a few and it has given the Justice Department some of our most important tools but the promise of equal opportunity and justice for people with disabilities. The anniversary of the ada gives us opportunity to recognize and celebrate enormous impact of people with disabilities and on our entire country. It also gives us an important opportunity to recognize the barriers that remain and recommit ourselves breaking them down. Far too often Law Enforcement officers are forced to respond to individuals facing challenges that do not have a Law Enforcement solution. This can contribute to significant harm to people experiencing Mental Health crises as well as need this incarceration or institutionalization of people. At the same time, it puts a great strain on Law Enforcement officers forced to fill in gaps Community Services. The Justice Department is working to address these challenges of the ada. Last month we traveled to midaugust to announce our investigation and minneapolis and the Police Department. During that investigation, many Behavioral Health related calls to not require response in the city failed to provide a meaningful opportunity and found examples of officers escalating situations and using avoidable force against people with Behavior Health disabilities. The city and mbd discriminate against people of Behavioral Health disabilities providing Emergency Response services. In violation of the ada. We are working closely with the city and pd and the community to develop a plan for addressing problems identified in the report. Earlier this year we announced similar findings violations involving Metro Police Department and jefferson county. We are working with local officials and Community Members measures. In addition to enforcement action we are working with partners across government to provide communities of Law Enforcement agencies to support Technical Assistance and resources they need to more effectively care for people in crisis. May of this year the Justice Department gathered with department of health and Human Services issued guidance for Emergency Responses to people with Behavior Health and other disabilities. This guidance provides state and local officials best practices responding to crises experienced by people with disability. Slightly different closely related subject, i want to let you know the Justice Department will soon issue a notice of rulemaking going website accessibility for people with disability. Depending on the day and time someone pushes play on recorded remarks, you may already know about that. The 33 years with the ada, our country has made important progress for filling the promise of equal justice and equal opportunity for people with disabilities but todays program is clear we have much more work to do. The Justice Department will never stop working to make real adas promise for all people with disabilities. We are grateful to everyone who has joined us today for your partnership in this work. [applause] i am delighted and honored to introduce our keynote speaker for todays event. Brian stevenson is the founder and executive director of equal Justice Initiative and lifelong advocate for Racial Justice for disability rights and criminal Justice System he began his legal career at the center for human rights helping represent death row inmates in the deep south. Eightynine he formed the equal Justice Initiative in montgomery, alabama to guarantee legal representation to any alabama inmates on death row made one of his first cases, i was the walter mcmillan, a black man sentenced to death for crime he did not commit. He represented him for several years and was able to exonerate him in 1993. Since then mr. Stevenson and ultimately able to exonerate him from prison in 1993. Since then, they have successfully represented hundreds of death row inmates. Much of his work revolves around the intersection between disability rights, Racial Justice and criminal justice. Uncompromising advocate for disabled people in over his career hes represented dozens of People Development of disabilities are incarcerated in prison or jail. In 2019, mr. Vincent successfully stopped the execution of a man with dementia by appealing the case to the United StatesSupreme Court. That was one of several Supreme Court cases hes argued and. He advocates for reform of terminal Justice System that disproportionally harms disabled people and published including his memoir which went on to become a major motion picture. And earned him countless awards and the American Bar Association ada metal aclu national and likely award and today mr. Stevenson continues to serve as director where opened a museum and memorial. Incredibly grateful for the work he does to owner americans with disabilities act and his decades of work and service. [applause] thank you so much. I am incredibly honored to be here. I am so wakeful for the kind introduction and excited to hear about the work of the department and Amazing Things taking place in this institution to advance people with disabilities talk about that to start by talking about the incredible work needed to advance and protect the rule of law because when a democracy starts to tolerate all of these are marginalized, we cannot protect any group of people in society we dont make fundamental commitments to enforce the rule of law. The standing up for rule of law and i cant be in this great hall without reflecting why it matters, why law matters. I started education and black children were not allowed to attend public school. When my dad was most of these in the community i grew up in a half has full degrees, not because they were not smart or want hardworking but because there were no high schools for black children in our country. The Supreme Court created a new era, there was this created. This made them in the school. 80 white if you have them on whether to end racial segregation, people would have lost that and took the rule of law coming into the community to open up the doors to go to college and law school, i would not be here to Order Community of people for people committed to enforcing law. Nobody in my family had gone to college, i might have been socially prepared as my classmates but i reflect on my time in college with some english ill be honest, i was excited when i went to college during my freshman year, everyone i found someone i didnt know i would say my name is brian and i love college plasma people would give me this look and i had this one day i was on the chair in the cafeteria and i got up on the chair and i shouted hey everybody, my name is mine and i love college and it seemed like the rest of my freshman year i ate alone a lot as a philosophy major and i wasnt sure what i was going to do and somebody came up to me one day and said you know, nobody pay you to philosophize when you graduate and i felt as a shocked because i hadnt thought about what comes after College Source at the graduate school because you in my family had gone to graduate school, i didnt know to get into graduate school, who love to know a lot about history, english and Political Science and i was intimidated by the. To be honest, that was how i found my way to law school so it was clear to me you dont need to know anything to go to law school. [laughter] a few months later i found myself sitting in a classroom at law school and thats when i discovered this power and community, a commitment to the rule of law. They have to protect the rule of law and we cannot talk about the university of americans with disability act without talking about the larger context and push against lawlessness and that commitment that took so long is necessary, Vulnerable People in society in any democracy will always be the people who suffer disproportionately and will always be marginalized and people with disabilities have been there for a long time. We passed americans with disability act because we knew we were being unfair, cruel, non democratic and away we allowed systems to operate with no attention for needs of disability and thats why it is important to acknowledge and honor this law and celebrate this law and enforce this law for Something Else happens at the same time we passed this act. We were in the midst of a new moment in american history, building jails and prisons at a pace unparalleled in world history. For most of the 20th century, it was largely stable, less than 300,000 people in jails and prisons throughout the 20th century until the 1970s, think we allowed ourselves to be governed by what i call the politics of fear and anger and grief began doing things that changed our relationship for incarceration. We have politicians arguing people who are drug addiction and dependence are criminal and should be punished, in prison for the addiction. We know in our Community People who suffer from addiction and dependency need healthcare intervention and triggers Behavioral Health problems that need responded with but because we didnt do that, our cousins began to fill, we put hundreds of thousands of people, the prison population what less than 300 thousand in the 70s to 2. 3 million a few years ago. United states the highest rate of incarceration in the world. Over 80 Million People in this country, records which means to stop, even try to get benefits from a therapist in spanish because of the. It had efficient for families and women going to present it 100 over the last 30 years. 80 of the women who put in jails and prisons are Single Parents with minor children which means it is passed on to another generation. Twenty years ago it was one in three black male baby on in this country to go to jail or prison during a lifetime. One in six are latino. We didnt respond to that likely responded to the pandemic and i think we need to a crisis event with profound implications for democracy for wellbeing and particularly people with the. Look at the plant now the largest physician, among the largest in the world with no community more severely impacted than people with disabilities. Jails and prisons are filled with people behavior applicable to not trust and it is urgent and necessary to take on. While we accept acknowledge and celebrate something, but from his work needs to happen to the criminalizing of people with disabilities. Some work that needs to happen is structural, systemic and i do believe it is important the Justice Department and advocates across the country reckoned with structural problems. Much of what happened in the era of incarceration during that time the people from all Political Parties push more punishment and changing laws became fashionable and blissfully other states have mandatory sentencing. We gutted the government we have hundreds of laws that dictate convicted of a crime the judge has no discretion to alter that center. Mandatory sentencing has become the norm in American Society and i think mandatory sentencing is in the basic structure, a huge challenge for people with disabilities. The something more dramatically displaced in mandatory sentencing and protect the rights of people with disabilities in the private sector and Public Sector but do not protect these rights in the legal system when people are convicted of crimes with no ability to consider the range of clearly established behavior disabilities. Rather than accommodate, we punish and its unusual to say we care about people with disabilities and in the private sector but not in this sector, it is cool to punish people for their disabilities and something is happening and we have to begin to understand is constructed for this commitment to offer incarceration and commitment to people with disabilities and i see these imprecations all the time. She parked the counter that happened everyday with police and receiving jails and prisons and attached is because these systems are public scrutiny and dont get the attention they deserve. We pushed back within communities of people with disabilities to challenge the children with disabilities, children dealing with this being demonized for the disability and we have kids in this country at tremendous risk with all kinds of indignation, households are unable to constantly hearing gunshots and going to funerals, someone is always shouting and screaming, showing his intervening mother time these children become four and five years old, they have trauma. You can evaluate the reins and the reports for diagnosis and disability diagnosis coming back from combat duty. A little bit of time for people who currently projected to these challenges creates a lasting disability. How you respond is to create environments for children and having a trauma informed response, we aggravate the condition by threatening even more, triggering even more of that challenge. Say if you dont do this or that, we are going to suspend the going to expose you to do interacting with teachers are warning superintendents and principles acting like correctional. These children are push and they are ignored. The dont feel the same and then they get older and we know what you are going through. Do not fundamentally understand the nature of this disability, the nature of his problem. Children who have been victims of what we are doing, kids with disability involving a 13yearold boy who live in the household his mother was the target of Domestic Violence and when would drink and get violent and one day the man drinking, he didnt say anything, he walked into the kitchen and called the mother over to the kitchen and went up to her face and she fell and hit her head on the floor and was purchased. Try to revive his mom is not bleeding but under ten minutes she was still not responsive and the boy saw his mom because of his discipline, he didnt know what to do and he said to go to the bedroom to call police or ambulance but when got the more he remembered his mothers boyfriend put a handgun and tore off the gun didnt know how to protect his mom and stood there holding the gun and was snoring and after a few minutes, he stopped doing and dont and when the little boy jumped, he pulled the trigger and shot the man in the head, killing him, really tragic. The boy was small for his age, under 100 pounds and shorter than 5foot total. He had challenges with no prior knowledge, he is a decent student, the kind of profile where he might have been in now that the man who shot and killed was a deputy sheriff. The child and the san diego unified immediately facing his will than the three days before getting involved and went to the jail to see how terrified he looked when he came in the matter when i asked. And they wouldnt say anything. And i worked on the table it got too tough. I couldnt figure out what to do. Sometimes it just came, i leaned on him and i dont know why and he leaned back and when he leaned back, put my arm around him to talk to me and thats when the little boy started crying and began talking to me about what happened to him or his mom but he talked to me what happened at the jail. He told me the next night he was sexually assaulted. He told me so many people, couldnt even remember how many that have been and i held the little boy while he cried hysterically and the painful thing for me is everyday in the country there are thousands of people with disability and pray for others and assault and violence and victimization in joint checking we have just finished as if you stay right here in the boy that he earned an okay, im going to get out of. We have allowed these to work for hugo, people dealing with, her included community, people engaged in behaviors and force it somehow and that has to change and i think all children are children and we look at how well can have all of these, our commitment to children to be how we treat orchids and this has to shift the great challenges we had as we think about the nda is what does it mean no when we understand the multiple ways in which so many have been left out so many unprotected. Im grateful for the Justice Department for the work theyve been doing and holding them accountable and only joe accountable, we need to do a lot more on enforcement has a particular role making sure we create a new chapter in our nations history with regard to protecting people with disabilities and helping the lives every person deserves to live and we wont get there until we understand fundamentally nature of this and people start going with mental disabilities and they see fit all the time, i work on extreme cases got involved in the case with the man sentenced to death and they come represent ben and i went to the prison to speak to the man i knew it was a tragic unexplained crying, nobody had done any work in the interesting thing is went down and parked my car in the parking lot and migration, i see things that provoke he says to mention we been doing a lot of work Racial Injustice and we havent done what we need to do in this country to reckon with our history of racial inequality. We havent done what we need to do to respond to the burden weve all inherited, we are burdened by history and it doesnt matter whether you live in the north east or south, you live in a state of history of Racial Injustice, they are everywhere and some would argue these contaminants will dissipate but i dont believe that, i think well have to do work to change this environment and one thing that bothers me more than anything is we created a landscape that not only contributes to the history of racial and celebrates it. It is striking is in you can go 200 meters at the center of berlin and Hotel Operators and go to the holocaust memorial. When i was in berlin, i learned there are no hitler standards, no memorial in the alabama and see a landscape celebrating this, it is challenging. In germany you are required to study and learn about the holocaust. Its mandatory to and we can teach our children about the holocaust and they might be on your machine. His truck with all of these bumper stickers, it is not uncommon, they have so many bumper stickers and was just looking at. All of these symbols and if i knew it would be like this, i would have picked my own crotch and hadnt seen that one before. I went inside and was just trying to see my client and when i got there, the guard came to me and said my name is brian, i am the legal and i want to see my client and he said youre not a lawyer. Is that i never needed to show my our current and he said im not letting you in until she showed it in. I said i do not get stripsearched, not letting you in until you give me that. I knew this man had a deadline could not reschedule so i made a difficult into the bathroom and allowed myself to be humiliated and wanted to see my client said what is on the book. As employers will help to sign and he said find the book. I find the book and finally he was leading me to the door and after he unlocked the door trying to get away, he grabbed me by the arm and said take my truck and it provoked me. I went into the prison and my client came out and this young man came out and no one had told me anything about this and this young man came out and the younger man said did you bring the chocolate milkshake . Is your lawyer here to represent you and asking questions and became clear this is someone who is clearly disabled by a lifetime of behavioral problems. Twenty foster homes by the time he was 12 and diagnosed behavior host challenges but no one responded. His 14 started using crack cocaine and by 15 he had a sick and at 16 and a diagnosis 18 is living on the streets and even approaching him to destroy and he said he was charged with capital murder and i read the minute the word disability or Behavioral Health or Mental Illness anywhere in a greater challenge in the legal system is we often have in this country that treatment better than if youre poor and innocent. It is the greatest people with difficulties involved in the people and we found and we went to court and we had experts talking about the challenges that these particular disabilities and i started to feel hopeful about what we might achieve and i noticed when we got there the guard who treated me so bad was the guard who brought him to the courthouse. He just stared at me and said im not going to let this guy distract me and i felt better. A month later i decided to go to and i drove down to visit and i saw him in the parking lot and i had a moment i thought i didnt want to deal with that guy and then i remembered the song, let me turn you around. And more to go in here and deal with it. The officer was there and running off the bar cart and here for a legal visit in the mantle you dont need to show me the card and i said thank you. I said id like to see my client and send the book and he said you were already signed in and i said thank you. I said do you want me to sign it . He said no, sir, i grant you already, come on in. I didnt know what she was up to in those kind of on my tippy toes because i knew something was about to happen in the front of the door where he let me in and he pulled the key out of his pant pocket and tried to unlock it but his hand started shaking and he was shaking so badly he couldnt keep the key in the lock and his face turned red and finally, the door and he turned around and unlocked the door and said i need to Say Something to you. Okay. He said i want to tell you about your client i didnt know so i learned some things about my he said i grew up in the foster care system, two. After a lot of challenges in the he said i just realized course of you are doing a good thing. I said im glad youre here because i want to tell you your drink a good thing and would it be all right to shake your hand . I was born and said you, that means a lot to me and i was about to walk past him to go inside the visitation and said wait, i have to tell you Something Else. With that . He said on the way back from the courthouse i did something. I said what did you do . You know how your clients ask for chocolate milkshake . I decided to go to wendys by him a chocolate milkshake. I dont tell you that because there is something grand and important but i tell you because when we talk about people with disabilities and criminalization, what we are talking about is being fundamentally unjust, unfair and reflects the absence of compassion and decency and much of what i believe shows our work has to be a greater commitment to compassion and commitment to respecting Human Dignity and commitment to lifting of the voices of people in need and i stand against the Death Penalty, i think the Death Penalty is always wrong. I think that first because punishment is what people deserve to die, i think threshold is whether we deserve to kill when we have a system undermined by other forces but even beyond that, it is incompatible with the representation of people disability is in that community to condemn and kill someone because of it and thats why i stand against it. I believe in accountability, i do. It is the way we but i do not believe we can enforce and embrace this act and apply it to those who are in need so we create compassion and increased understanding necessary to do this work. The last thing is we cannot do this work without Partnership People with disabilities. It is community of people with disabilities have insight and knowledge that we need to understand how it works. About people with disabilitys without hearing their stories, we will make mistakes and misjudge things that is why it is essential to create relationships that allow conversations that i am constantly learning from client and they may not be able to come to you and articulate the things they dont understand, that is true for the communities i represent but when we do it, we hear things and understand things that is not only our capacity to be compassionate but to be just. I was giving a talk in a church and an older man who is disabled came in a wheelchair and i was impressed because he seemed powerful, nothing about him that was an older black man who came into the church and he was staring at me with an angry look said why are you looking at me so angrily . I was giving my talk and he was staring so hard but i got through my talk and people came up asking to talk and he just kept staring and finally everybody walked away and he brought himself to the front of the church and he came up to me and said you know what you are doing . Understood the end he said do you know what you are doing . He asked me one more thing, do you know what youre doing . He looked at me and said im going to tell you what you are doing. He looked at me and said were beating the drum for justice, you keep beating the drum for justice. I was so honored. I just didnt know what he was about to say. Then he grabbed me by the jacket and pulled me and said im going to show you something. He said you see this scar i have here . That scar trying to register black people to vote because you seek is cut down here, trying to register black people to vote and he said this is my blues in birmingham alabama trying to register people to vote. People look at me and think they see a person with disability and they see an old man with a wheelchair covered with cuts and bruises but i want you to know, these are not my cut, not by bruises, these are not my scars. These are my medals of honor and we need to hang out medals to the people in this country pushing to make the americas disability act like opportunity, dignity for millions who have been marginalized. I am thrilled the Justice Department has committed to lead this fight and help despite an honor this opportunity to share with you today. [applause] thank you mr. Stevenson for your remarks. I appreciate you ensuring our approach to this work is informed and experiencing people with disabilities that we center in the approach to this work and this is critical for all of us whether we are lawyers or advocates or lawmakers century was an experience of people with disabilities. Today we would have turned 82 years old. If you are not tragically lynched. To ensure our history of slavery and reckoning with the history of jim crow in this country, i was wondering if you could talk about how it shaped the issues we are focused on today. Thank you for that question and thank you for your remarks talking about the nature of trauma and generational harm, i dont think with reckoned with that and the way we need to. I dont think we are free yet, we are so burdened by inequality, this narrative that was created. I think it is still like an inspection. We have a great prostitution talking about equality and justice for all but didnt apply this to Indigenous People subjected to famine and disease and death and millions died. We use that narrative to tolerate it would have centuries of slavery. I dont think the great evil of american slavery was in vomited server to pick the greatest evil to me was that the narratif racial difference that we created to justify the enslavement. Enslavers didnt want to feel immoral unjust or unchristian so they needed narrative of the date of this false narrative that black people are not as good as white people, the black people less capable, less mercy and were the less human. That narrative was so powerful that it actually pushed back the rule of law. We have the civil war, the north winds the southwinds the narrative and within a few years reconstruction collapses here are 14th amendment and 15th amendment were not enforced for over 100 years because we were committed to this narrative of racial difference that we about it to lead to lawlessness which is by the rule of law is so important for sentry like people are pulled out of homes, beaten, drowned, tortured, lynched sometimes on the Courthouse Lawn and congress did nothing. Court did nothing for Law Enforcement did nothing and it left a tragic traumatic injury on africanamericans in this country, 6 million black people fled to the American South during the first draft of the 20 sentry. They left land that they out and left opportunities to great wealth that they had forfeited we have a wealth gap never talked about how that wealth gap is rooted in the history of lawlessness and terrorism that forced millions to sleep. The black people in chicago and cleveland and detroit and los angeles and oakland didnt go to these communities of immigrants looking for new economic opportunities. They went as refugees and exiles from care in the American South. With that came this presumption of dangers and guilt are thats what complicates the lives of people with disabilities who are people of color. In addition to whatever the challenge is that are experienced when you are managing all of the things have not been addressed yet for people with disabilities theres this other resumption of dangerousness and guilt that gets laid on top of it its why the intersection between people with disabilities of Law Enforcement community is so fraught with this presumption of dangerousness and guilt mr. With this even though we have a separation of the deconstructive legal architecture of racial segregation we still have that resumption that narrative that follows us. I can tell you because i sting this up close and you know it as well, you cant educate yourself away from presenter of dangerousness and guilt you cant require a trip acquire enough resources but you can be a department of justice work, advocate, psychologist, teacher, a professor but if youre black or regular go places in this country where you have to navigate this presumption of dangerousness and guilt because of getting older i can tell you when you had to constantly navigate these presumptions, its exhausting. And that is why we have a particular need to see the relationship between our work in protecting folks with disciplines, people with disabilities and deconstructing this racial inequality that is all the register ive been to court myself when eyes are doing, and middle court court in the midwest representing a young person can have my best suit and tie on temple city, got the early sitting at the the fee counsel table editor talk to and saw me sitting there and he said hey, hey, hey. You get back out at home with her i dont want any defendants in a courtroom without a lawyer i set up sorry i didnt introduce myself my name is Bryan Stevenson i am the lawyer for the judge started laughing and the Positive Side laughing and i made myself laugh because i did want to disadvantage my client it was more vulnerable than i was picked quite came and we do think that after i remember sitting in my car thinking wow your i am this middle age black male in my best suit argued the case we were talking about and im still required to laugh at my own humiliation to do justice for my client. Thats why i do think our reckoning with assistive racial inequality has to be integrated in our enforcement of the rights of people with disabilities or otherwise we will leave behind some of the most vulnerable and marginalized parts of that community as we try to lift up these rights. I think it is an opportune moment to recognize that the ada americans with disability act of one of our nations most important federal civil rights laws one of the most important laws ever passed by congress. At the same time when we broke that a lot of ground we just have not figured out how to break this grant that we focus on today addressing the barriers that we see in the Law Enforcement in the correctional setting. As folks listen to you and kind of think about how they can use what theyve learned in her today to kind of feel their advocacy device do you have for them . Number one will have to be intentional about reaching out addressing acknowledging and understanding the needs of people with disabilities who are in the complex, in situations where there made vulnerable by Law Enforcement, defendant was happening in our jails and prisons. Most spaces are not providing services. Not providing care that people are coming out of these institutions actually more compromised more vulnerable more traumatized than when it went and picked that house to become a higher priority when we think about things. Secondly i do think we have to begin to be more intentional than when we think about what what does compassion require extreme punishment we impose on everybody, i dont think thats true for anyone but its particularly unjust when we dont do the things we need to do to actually understand and identify people with disabilities. The third thing we have to become more sensitive to the politics of fear and anger. In many ways our prisons and jails are filled with all these people because we allow ourselves to be governed by fear and anger was a real care that a person is dealing with disability or we dont care u with addictions. Were just mad angry people exploit without athletic fear and anger are the essential ingredients of injustice of oppression. Go anywhere and work with people being mistreated the people are mistreating for f mr. Duncan can give you a narrative of fear and anger. When you hear that kind of tone that kind of rhetoric that kind of policymaking its important to step back and think about who is going to be disadvantaged by this . Whos going to be oppressed, whos going to be silenced by this . At the top of the list will be people with disabilities and all the communities that had been too long marginalized and vulnerable adults part of what we have to respond to as well. Finally relationship with people with disabilities is the most important thing we can do because those relationships give us insight that we hear things we can otherwise hear. We see things we wouldnt otherwise depict we begin to understand things we wouldnt otherwise understand and that knowledge creates a foundation of community that allows us to advocate allows us to understand allows us to move forward in a way that is much more informed. I get excited because i have learned so much from any of the people i work with and ive been inspired and it makes my work much more satisfying and much more gratifying knowing that im in community with people whose rights and needs are absolutely critical to creating the democracy i want to live in. The issues were talking about today really lend themselves to coalition building, that theres a lot we can do to build consensus to i talk to Law Enforcement leaders and sheriffs of mott who complained about the fact that our jails and prisons have become places where we detain, hide and segregate people with disabilities, that there are no Services Available for people with disabilities. They reject the idea jails and prisons are appropriate places to house people with disabilities. Talk about the work we can do to build those coalitions and to build consensus around issues that in 2023 he would have expected we would have made far more progress on in our society today. Thats an important point. I told a story about the correctional officer because i dont think everybody in the spaces is hostile. That person had hostility had not been addressed. A lot of people only want to know what to do, they want to help people. We think of Law Enforcement a lot of these institutions as helping institutions but if you put somebody in a situation where they dont know how to help and their coping strategy and Management Strategy is going to aggravate, no one is going to leave that situation satisfied. I do think its a port we begin to shift that paradigm. If we can keep Law EnforcementPolice Officers out the spaces whether or not equipped to do with a Behavioral Health crisis, not only with a person in crisis fare better but those departments will do better as well. Thats too far jails and prisons picked prisons. Youre right, in my conversations with these institutions they dont know how to manage people who are dealing with psychoses and schizophrenia appear you cant drive people to the point where their dysfunctional. Thats not an acceptable or healthy approach. You cant segregate, you get ice liquor thats not acceptable. We have to begin building a new infrastructure that is responsive to the needs of people in these situations. I do think theres a lot more opportunity that people sometimes realize if we get quite enough to begin the dialogue we can make enormous progress which is why i didnt i think the consent decrees and an average of the department is making in some communities can be transformative for people in these committees and we need to see that model more and more. These reforms as you know not only would produce Better Outcomes for people with disabilities but, frankly, would help to promote public safety, result in better policing when police are not diverting resources away from the real problems that exist in our society. I mentioned the ems system we develop in our country, when somebody has a heart attack and you call 911 you are not givingg an armed officer that shows up at your door pick your dating medical services, emergency medical services. I think there is an opportunity in the road ahead to reimagine how we respond to people who are experiencing behavioral and mental and emotional Health Crises as we wrap up this discussion i wonder if you could lay out some strategies that you think could help to really propel these issues forward. We are going to continue to do our all right at the Justice Department might want to make sure those participating today can leave with the tools and strategies needed to fuel advocacy efforts in their own community. Beginning with just the shift towards health, i mean, i want Community Members to feel safe to everybody, i hate crime is nothing about violence that it what is it anywhere i dont want anybody to be robbed or assaulted or threatened or minister im against all of that violence. Police violence but also Domestic Violence and Sexual Violence in all kinds of it. To get there we will have to shift and begin to really explore the infrastructure of Health Service for people in this country for if we begin asking more questions about why, why is this young man part in the mcdonalds lot . Why are they not responding . Why is this person struggling . Why is this person dressed like that in the situation . Instead of reason they are bad and guilty, begin to think theres a Health Problem here and we need respond and that we. I think thats true broadly. I think its true for children, true for people who are otherwise overrepresented in our system. So that has got to be the beginning pick as we learn more we do our part we respond better for there was a time when people thought that certain kind of behaviors were just indicators of a bad personality come about identity and then we begin to understand what was underlined that there that shift to help focus is really important for effective think if i do think we need to spend more time with people in jails and prisons, as much as this department is doing its still a forgotten space in the landscape of need in this country pick you cant have nearly 2 Million People in custody many of them im going to say the majority of them have disabilities have been unrecognized they do something about and want to do something about helping people with disabilities and not be there either engaged in that space. We still do in my view separate some of the most Vulnerable People. Private attorneys cant enforce the prison act. That means in any given day there are still thousands of children and adult jails and prisons where they are at risk. People people call us and say they cant get the resources they need, cant get her meds. There are not a lot of intervention, has shifted so far away from prisoners rights and like people who are in prison to protect themselves. I think the rest of us will have to fill that gap there is a critical goal for the Justice Department also critical goal for every one of us to begin elevating this issue as a topic we talked about and addressed with our elected officials and lastly i do think that learning is an action item, that you have to learn more about the landscape of issues that impact people with disabilities just like we have to learn more about her history of racial inequality. Most of us didnt get the education we needed to confront this environment. With something called the history of Racial Injustice in each state we put something out on the counter. Im amazed at the feedback is usually i have never known that. I did know about that, had seen that. That would be my prescription. I think we have to be more intentional and proactive with helping the most vulnerable in our jails and prisons. We have to make a fundamental shift of asking questions about what is Health Analysis or come what is the why . Then commit to moving to and recognized it, educating ourselves is something we do. It is an action item that empowers us to then be better advocates and citizens. My final question to you, your museum and memorial that you directed in montgomery has done an amazing job telling the story about slavery and the legacy of jim crow, at telling the american story. From the experience that you had become successful experience youve had in montgomery, the strategies that you want to share the participants here today about how we can lift up the stories of people with disabilities in our country and really shape the public narrative in a different kind of way. Was yeah. I mean i like that within the community theres a kind of new theme, which is that people with disabilities have done extraordinary things and we should be able to exhibit pride about the things people have accomplished we should acknowledge and honor and celebrate that. In communities relating to race we had to do that, make that transition. Ultimately i believe that sometime we make the same mistake when were talking about people with disabilities that were making other context. When i talk broadly about my work represented people on death row my work with the people in jails and prisons i often say that each of us is more than the worst thing weve ever done. That its a little selector not just a liar comfort not just a thief and you cant judge that person just based on the act. Within the community i forward people say and it reflects people with disabilities are more than just a disability, just some challenge, just something. What we dont understand everything that we dont understand their humanity, their dignity, their need and their right to be seen as a person with all the things we bought. Added to think that is part of the struggle that we are pushing the Africanamerican Community to recognize his history. Here it will be true for people with disabilities. There so much beauty, so much knowledge, so much was a bit i tell this story about the older meant that in that because he understand something about struggle that i need to learn. He understand some things about witness that i need to learn to within the community of people with disabilities there so much we can learn and understand and gain insight from if we position ourselves in a place to learn, to hear. But it has to be lifted after i do think that is an important part of what we are now confronting in america. We are in a struggle in this country and if we dont develop Narrative Strategies to help people understand whats behind the right, whats behind the advocacy, people get polarized and start doing things that revert back to fear and anger. Thats why i really do think its important on days like today that we lift up communities and begin to think through what is the narrative strategy as we move forward over the next three years. It is time to and the criminalization of people with disabilities in our country. Please join the extant and warm round of applause to mr. Bryan stevenson. [applause] [applause] we will now move into a Panel Discussion featuring a group of wonderful experts moderated by rebecca, the chief of the civil rights disability rights section im going to now turn the floor over to rebecca bond who will introduce the panel appear thank you so much. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] can you hear me now . Okay. Certainly you can. Good afternoon. My name is rebecca bond and i have the pleasure of serving as the chief of our disability rights section. With this panel we are really hoping to further discuss some of the concepts, practices, the challenges that Bryan Stevenson and attorney general clark explored. We really have some tremendous Experts Joining us here its really an honor to be on the pan with the three of you. First, we have estella richman. Stl has more than 40 years with disability and social Service System and has been a lifelong advocate for people with disabilities she served as the secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare from 2003 hi from 2009, overseeing the administration of medicaid, Mental Health and Substance Abuse services, Child Welfare program and longterm living programs to she also used her position to close state institutions to create a system of care for people on the autism spectrum and to design a Medicaid Agency specifically for Behavioral Health. Estella also significant experience serving on the federal and local level she has held key positions at had met in the philadelphia director she currently works in the new executive director of specific coalition to save lives and is a Senior Advisor to the philadelphia managing director on gun violence program. Next i would like to introduce alvin skip, skipper skip was born and raised in queens. From a young age skip at multiple encounters with Law Enforcement, many of which were Mental Health related. She was first incarcerated at the age of 17 after which she alternated between release and reincarceration for over two decades. She described herself as having experience every system in new york including homeless services, shelter systems, drug programs. In 2007 after another release from prison, skip determined that she would not return. She became involved in an alternative to Incarceration Program where she learned crap with the underlying issues contributing to her reincarceration such as Mental Illness and Substance Abuse disorders. Since then she has been an advocate for reform of the criminal Justice System and for justice for people with Mental Health disabilities for incarcerated primarily because they are disabled. Skip now currently serve as executive director of the new york city just to spear initiative. And last but certainly not least we are joined by regular rush. Reagan is a Principal Deputy chief of the special litigation section she focuses on cases involving title ii of the americans with disabilities act and the obligation for public entities to serve individuals with disabilities in the most integrated setting appropriate peer she works on issues related to criminal justice and people with disabilities. Reagan worked at a Nonprofit Organization representing individuals with Mental Illness in cases involving civil commitment defense, institutional conditions, access to services, warehousing and public benefits. Please join me in welcoming our three panelists here today. [applause] so come on, to start the discussion with you and i think that your insights will really build on the earlier presentations that we heard. You spent many years working to ensure that people with Disabilities Receive Services in the community and avoid unnecessary institutionalization. In recent years we have seen Community Integration efforts include a focus on keeping people with disabilities out of the criminal Justice System and both mr. Stevenson and ag clark talk about how cute is to have services that keep folks with this those out of the criminal Justice System. Can you share your thoughts on the relationship between our disability Service System and criminal justice involvement of people with disabilities . Yes. Thank you para first thank you for being here today never having an opportunity to comment. If such a delight to be on the same stage as someone like Bryan Stevenson because hes done so much to bring to light the plight of not only people of color but how damaging our current criminal Justice System is. Ive been involved in helping people with disabilities get out of institutions when i talked institutions on talking everything from people who have been in state mental hospitals, retardation civic computer within nursing facility of people who have been in jail. They are all institutions and if you have been active spent any time in an institution you know that we know, we know well that other people survive, live and begin to grow when theyre not in institutions for institutions dont provide opportunities for people to live grow and to change. Our goal needs to be anything has been in many ways over the last 33 years is to be institutionalized or unfortunately with ada and with all stans partner we really have learned some of those lessons. We just havent moved fast enough. We havent moved potentially enough to prevent the harm. So why we have lots of communitybased programs and i do think we go up and down and are readily available they are and how many of those needs we meet, he suddenly ran into what i also call the perfect storm. We know how some of our most Vulnerable People, people with disability, people of color because they have never done well in any of our systems, and we now have put in place. We know that we have well documented evidence that police often have both conscious and unconscious bias with people of color which means we may see someone they often miss a gift w old the person is, how large a person is. They instantly assume that a black person or person of color is dangerous. They assume that their intent is not good. They make an assumption about people of color that starts in their own had often and its not just you enter that a person with a disability and we now have someone who doesnt ever have a fair Playing Field for an even Playing Field when theyre trying to get service to our services have not been designed to fight with the police. At this point in time we need to rescue our people of color from police when they come in contact because the outcome isnt good. We recently in philadelphia had a young man whod been very active with his Mental Health providers in the system. Is family knew that but in a moment of crisis when he had gone outside with a knife and dressed, so that nothing hidden, he had a knife on, nothing else. Police were called to take him to the Mental Health center here and within minutes they had shot him. He represented absolutely no danger to anyone, except himself. Yet we have a system that instantly assume he was dangerous, that he was dangerous to anyone else and hes not with us. That the system that we are fighting every day. In one of my position in the city before i went to the state, the mayor asked me to be the director of social services, which i thought okay, this is bringing together Child Welfare, health, Behavioral Health, almost excessive, sounded like a good idea, sounded like a good way to integrate programs to any set of also giving you present spear i said youre getting the prisons click why are they not with the police and Justice System collects he said im giving you prisons because its the failure of your system, and why, why the people end up in the prison system. I thought about that and i said you know, hes right. With the behavior system, the health system, the homeless system Window Systems fail, Window Systems cant provide the services that wrap people around him who protect them, make sure theres housing, make sure the main thing i drink meaningful things for people to do, to educate the folks around them, when those systems fail people end up in jail. So, therefore, the systems need to come together to figure out how we stop that. Actually thats a good followup question i have for you. How, how do governments avoid relying on Law Enforcement response to respond to people with disabilities collects with different response would be the right response to how do we keep a person out of that . You know, the good news is we know what programs work we have known what programs worked for years. The bad news is we do make decisions not to put them in place, not to find them. Not to support them, not to make it a priority to the programs that we need i think we know that mobile crisis teams work. We know that if we make sure they are available 24 hours a day, we know that if they are available on demand they can make a difference. We know that if we can embed at least one crisis person anytime a Police Officer is called out to a situation and help discriminate with those 911 workers in the 988 workers, when they did the police and when they dont come we can make a difference to we know that housing works, supportive housing, not institutional housing. We know that peer support credible messengers can we do those things work. We have to intentionally make sure they are available spirit thank you for that. I would like to turn next to you, skip. We heard earlier about the importance of hearing from folks with lived experience. We have talked in the introduction how you had numerous encounters with police relative Mental Health issues. Can you share some of your experiences with us . Yes, thank you. First of all i would like to thank everybody for inviting into this prestigious event. I would also like to take, to thank mr. Bryan stevenson for talking about something that i started to call the other, as a criminologist and as a researcher. I have realized that the United States has long fostered the concept of otherness here it started with the indigenous population. It continued on speed ahead with slavery of africanamerican people and has continued since then. We are part of the other when we have physical or medical disabilities. Behavioral health is a medical disability. I wouldve never been in touch with the criminal Justice System if i did not suffer from an unchecked Mental Illness which i tried to medicate myself with illegal substances. It is during those occasions when i am in crisis, yet the crisis is not seen. Weve already discussed about how the Police Department are not educating. They are not appear they should not be the first line of defense in any type of crisis that does not involve a safety issue. So yes, theres been times and ive been going down the yellow line for those you dont know the other line is a middle of the street, suffering from crisis, instead criminalize im arrested and only after a search to find me entering any Drug Paraphernalia or anything like that. But the Behavioral Health diagnosis is never, never put into play. Ive always been arrested for ive always been thrown up under the jail. I know you spoke of two decades of going back and forth in the system you are entirely right. I first got arrested when i was 17 and not and i going a National Webinar come i know i look like a day over 18 but actually im not there i will be 57 next month so when i started this at 70 and i came home from the last time in my early 40s, every time i was arrested i was put up under the jail. I grew up in Rikers Island and dont get me started with happening on Rikers Island. I lived through all of that. I was never afforded treatment there i was never afforded support. It was, so if youre going on the yellow line, there is the aspect of dangerousness but who am i a danger to . Myself, the motors to my kidney . Or the public . But because im dealing with that otherness because im not like the normative, i dont look like people. I dont talk like people appear on always criminalize and always go to jail. Lets talk about even being in jail. The under support, new services i committed jail homeless. Addicted to drugs suffered from an unchecked Mental Illness. I check out the same with your own if i go to another system im still the same way. I leave out of that system still the same week i released back to the streets of new york still the same way. Sooner or later ive got up in the criminal Justice System again. You talked about how Law Enforcement should not be the first line of defense to people experiencing Mental Health crisis. You founded an organization that provides Peer Support Services. Can you explain what the services are and why it may be particularly helpful to have Peer Support Services as part of mobile Crisis Response teams . Thank you. Yes, i will. Try to be a sissy as possible because i do talk about her i just jotted down a few words. Yall forgive me because y i speak from passion for the hartford veteran ficus transforming service delivery. We train those with lived experiences who are the subject Matter Experts in the room. Thereby creating a directly impacted workforce. Will also assist in decriminalization of Behavioral Health by training is impacted by Mental Health and Substance Use disorder who possess a valid lived experiences of the criminal Justice System impacts as justice appears. Its an evidencebased practice that is done Great Results in Behavioral Health also in the medical field. We assist those who are impacted. We assist them with support, we mentor the person with Behavioral Health issues on all levels of the sequential model the sequential intercept model was delineated by sampson as touch point for some with Behavioral Health impacts can be intercepted by the criminal Justice System this system starts in the community that moves through the police courts, individual incarceration on diversion up to and including reentry or reentry with committee supervision for so basically we get people like myself, a certified Substance Abuse and Mental Health peer who also has lived experience with the criminal Justice System and repair them with people who are beginning in the system. This helps with recidivism. This helps with management of Behavioral Health symptoms. This helps with workforce development. Help with generating economic welfare those of us were directly impacted by the criminal Justice System, we have a hard time finding housing, a hard time finding employment. We have a hard time creating anything that looks like generational wealth. Lets out onto the fact most of us are black and brown which means we are far behind the eight ball to begin with. Its one thing that Justice Peer Initiative is doing. You looking at all of that and we entered we transforming. The criminal Justice System has come so far there is no reform. We need to tear it down. We need to transform it. Thank you for that reagan, i want to turn to you as we hear today celebrating the 33rd anniversary of the ada. Both the attorney general and ag clark referenced the work the Civil Rights Division has done, use the ada to address the attraction with folks with disabilities and the criminal Justice System. Your section has been doing work in this area. Can you talk to us about how the disability rights laws apply in this area . Absolutely, and its also a pleasure to be here today and to look out to see so many people who are doing this work the unit that outer expert in the field and, frankly, its a little intimidating to be up here with you all in the audience but i will try my best. Its an exciting time to be in the Civil Rights Division pick were doing a lot of work in this area and try to get at this from two primary angles. First is ensuring that quality and sufficient Community Services to prevent the criminal justice involvement in the first place through olmsted work. As others have talked about really the root causes and the success in the criminal justice and injustice interaction get to that lack of Quality Committee service we talked about that ability effective and proven to help people with disabilities live the lives of their choosing in their own communities. S apartment supported housing, supported employment, Mental HealthServices Come here support services, Crisis Services. And, of course, under the americans with disability act and the Supreme Court decision in olmsted state and local governments have an affirmative obligation to provide these services as alternatives to institutions Facility Based Services like Psychiatric Hospitals and nursing facility and adult care homes. These services are the same ones that prevent criminal justice involvement. As assistant attorney general clark talked about, our investigation and work in Alameda County california without people with Behavioral Health disabilities are repeatedly cycling through the county Psychiatric Hospital and your prolonged stays and longerterm psychiatric facilities, we found that they are often incarcerated in the county jail where they had an adequate and unconstitutional Mental Health care exacerbating those conditions. So the solutions there really are these communitybased services to prevent the cycle in the first place. And her olmsted settlement and court orders spanning over the past decade in places like georgia, North Carolina and mississippi have been successful in expanding those medical services that support covering. Cited, were also look at cities Crisis Response systems with the goal of diverting people with disabilities to alternative Behavioral Health responses were appropriate. Weve talked about today in minneapolis and louisville we found officers of their, their primary responders even if thats not necessary and that many of those calls could be handled with Behavioral Health professionals. In those cities, the end result is using police in this role as primary responders quite harmful including increased risk of avoidable arrest, incarceration, injury, trauma and even death. And under title ii of the ada this is an equitable. That deprives people with Behavioral Health disabilities equal opportunity to benefit from the cities Crisis Response system. We found both cities could address the discrimination through reasonable modifications, increasing availability of alternative Behavioral Health response and ensuring 911 call centers dispatch appropriate response where possible. Thank you so much for that, regan. I want to shift gears for a moment. Weve been talking a lot about disability discrimination but as we talk to ag clarke and Bryan Stevenson talked about a third element in there, and in each of you as your own perspective on how disability discrimination intersects with Racial Justice issues in the criminal justice arena, so its like to take a bit of time to talk about that and hear from each of you. Can each give your perspective on the intersection of criminal justice disability discrimination and Racial Justice . Estella, id like to start with you. What are your perspectives on this question without disability discrimination and Racial Justice interacts in the criminal Justice System . Again i think the challenge for us becomes underneath almost everything we deal is a Racial Injustice peer the Playing Field ive never been perfectly even for people of color. Whether its in the housing field, employment field. So you have an uneven playground for someone who has no disability peer so you all of the second house becomes a challenge, employment becomes a challenge. Every day living becomes more of a challenge because on top of that you have a huge amount of poverty and pure discrimination. And then you add in a Police System that comes with its own biases. So people with disabilities dont really even have an honest chance most of the time to change the plight they are in. And intake advocates and they take the law to be there one way to break that barrier. I would tell you from the position i sit in that think that it made the most difference has been the building of people with lived experience into positions of not only leadership but in policy and in guidance. We have aired far too long on the side of you have to have advanced education and we have acknowledged it with lived experience. As we begin to understand the value, the heavy value of lived experience we can maybe begin to begin to see a more even Playing Field. Right now were still at the very beginning of understanding the role of lived experience advocates, credible messengers and peer support. So i think i am an instant fan peer because he picked the hardest city working to begin to change our paradigm. Thats whats going to make it easier for people with disabilities, and a look at the field of Racial Justice. That is a great segue, skip, to the next question i have for you. Can you share with us how disability and race have played a role in the experiences that youve had with Disability Services systems and with Law Enforcement . In order to do that i need to go back to the comment i made before about otherness even if we just piece off a part which is criminal justice impact, that fully puts me into the realm of otherness. Now, im impacted by the criminal Justice System like yesterday before, i thought about house, a job. Im trying to keep myself situated in order to become a responsible citizen but im already considered by my society and my city as a secondclass citizen. And vent on top of that were going to add a little Behavioral Health into the mix. I am so far away from what is considered normal, im so far away from the normative that theres really no way of me coming back. I would like to really put on, like we talked about lived experiences. We talked about people with lived experiences being part of policy. For so long we were not in debt because we didnt have the proper education and nobody really understood the value of lived experiences some going to put this on myself that im sitting here now as a double threat because i have the education. I am on my march to my phd dear i also have the lived experiences so im really kind of going back wondering what could happen next what are you going to throw at me next to, why i cant sit at the table its only up to those of us who sit up and speak up that we realize that we are not begging for a seat at the table anymo. I am the table picked did you come sit with me. [applause] and they dont say that facetiously. We have been asked out that we cant do this, we cant do that, we are not capable of this, we are not capable of that. But with my years of lived experiences, we are talking 25 years. I should be a double phd by find out there is anything about a phd . But yet yet im still goie educational aspect because i realized in order to be a changemaker, in order to create policy i need to speak the same rhetoric that the policymakers speak my lived experience does not give me that i can talk that really but indeed to speak collegially and that is also another thing that is kind of like the gatekeepers that keep us away from effecting change. If we lay down those, i dont know what we would call it, archaic policies and procedures that you cant do this unless you have a College Degree, you cant do that unless you have x amount of years of schooling and realize most of us advocates of those of us who got boots on the ground that the author begging them drums, not all of us have a College Degree but yet we are creating change. Like . Why are we creating change . Because this is our moment to create change because the powers to be, that be have the rates for so long and yall did nothing with it. Nothing. Step aside and let us come because we are creating change. We are doing yet. [applause] thank you. And on that topic of making change, can you talk about ways the division can work in this area to address Racial Justice concerns as well as disability discrimination . Absolutely. Recently found in our investigations recently that race very much intersects with these issues. In minneapolis, in louisville those of both cities marred by stark racial inequality fueled by significant economic disparities, following along racial lines and enduring patterns of residential segregation. It was in that backdrop we found reason to believe that Police Practices resulted in racially discriminatory policing against black people in areas such as stops, searches, arrests, prolonged detention and use of force here in minneapolis we saw a similar pattern of discrimination against native americans. For example, in minneapolis we reviewed an incident where a mother called 911 regarding her daughter, a black woman with Mental Illness who was attempting to hurt herself. By the time the Police Arrived she was walking calmly through a park. Nevertheless, please escalate the situation, put her in a neck restraint while her mom shouted for police to stop choking her daughter. The use of police to respond Behavioral Health issues can cause, particularly for communities with high rates of prior negative Police Encounters and complete a reluctance to engage in the treatment. Rigorous ada enforcement can help prevent this kind of harmful results that Impact Communities of color. Thank you going to start with kind of a little bit of speed around of this session. Picking up on this concept of change, if you could change one thing to avoid people with disabilities being caught up in a criminal Justice System, what is the top changes you would like . I would like each of you to answer that question and i think regan i will start with you. I think skip nailed it on the head when she talked about the otherness. I think we cant get at this until we address the underlying prejudice and stigma that exists that allows us to you as a society treat people with disabilities as other, as nonhuman, and without basic human respect and dignity. I think without, i think if we could change that we have a platform needed to go further and to realize the actual goals and intent of the ada. Estella i would like to give you the floor. This is always a tough one because you were trying you know there are about five things you want to do and you are saying one. I think if i had to choose one thing i would want to see someone with the political will to give control to people with lived experience. Sport and last but not least, skip. Im going to keep this to one think i agree with both of you ladies but but i definitelyo talk about trauma informed responses and supports. Im going to talk about how that creates a sense of safety. I cant tell you about how many times i had police over me and i lost, i lost my voice. I lost my choice. I lost my sense of safety and police are supposed to be there to protect me, but yet i was unsafe but if you look at trauma informed responses, and you start with that, start with proper education, proper training, realizing, i guess im going back to new york city here, the police are not the ones to decide on the fly when someone is suffering from Mental Illness and needs to be involuntarily confined in a Mental Health hospital, but we need more training, more, informed responses before any decision is made. I just want to thank each of you, estella, skip and break it for your willingness to take a seat at this table interfere with us your insights and thoughts. Happy ada anniversary everybody. Thank you. [applause] we would like to thank all of you for coming today. We hope this program will help to fuel your advocacy, inspire new ideas, forge new partnerships and galvanize the work that must be done and the criminalization of people with disabilities in our country. As the ada moves through its 30 something years that offers us new ways to think about old problems. The issues we have discussed today ive received attention if the National Discourse but too often they are viewed only through a medical or treatment lands here it is high time that we understand them as true civil rights issues. The Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department has begun to do just that, and we will continue to use every tool available to us to address these problems. We hope that you will join us, and we thank you for joining us today. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] state. 18 total days until