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Rights of Persons with Disability Not to Be Criminalised

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Human Rights and Incarceration

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology ((PSIPP))

Abstract

Persons with mental and cognitive disabilities from disadvantaged backgrounds are over-represented amongst prison populations across ‘Western’ countries. There is systematic criminalisation of disadvantaged and racialised persons with disability. This chapter considers how persons with disability are criminalised in the community as well as whilst incarcerated in Australia. Drawing upon various relevant rights instruments, especially the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the chapter examines the accessibility of those with disabilities to their rights to fair and just processes, and appropriate disability services. It critically examines the tendency to focus on individual rights to the detriment of systemically embedded rights. Together with the development of a disability justice strategy in some Australian jurisdictions, a ‘justice disability rights framework’ founded in social justice is proposed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Eileen Baldry

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  1. Eileen Baldry
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Correspondence to Eileen Baldry .

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  1. Institute of Criminology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

    Elizabeth Stanley

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Baldry, E. (2018). Rights of Persons with Disability Not to Be Criminalised. In: Stanley, E. (eds) Human Rights and Incarceration. Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95399-1_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95399-1_3

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