Theses and Dissertations

The United States houses only five percent of the world’s population but over 20% of its prison population. There has been a dramatic increase in carceral numbers over the last several decades with much of this population being people with mental illness designations. Many scholars attribute this phenomenon to the process of deinstitutionalization, in which mental health institutions in the U.S. were shut down in the 1950s and ‘60s. However, disability scholar Liat Ben-Moshe argues that this is a dangerous oversimplification that fails to credit the deinstitutionalization movement as an abolitionist movement and to take into account shifting demographics between institutions and prisons/jails. This study considers how mass incarceration in the U.S. stems from a trend of isolating and punishing BIPOC and people with disabilities at disproportionate rates as it explores lived experiences at the intersection of mental health and incarceration. Findings inform an abolitionist agenda by highlighting the near impossibility of rehabilitation and treatment in an inherently traumatizing space.

Missing children are very sensitive cases where any kind of help is needed from the community and authorities. The definition is a child under 17 years of age where guardians or family are not aware of their whereabouts requires much effort and resources to bring them home. However, what happens when those efforts are not to the same extent as other missing children? This has been seen among missing children of different races that have similar cases and circumstances. The different tools and resources needed such as AMBER Alerts, social media, journalism, and police reaction have resulted in vastly different endings for these children. Different states and communities have been faced with the same issue and have only grown. Statistics show that Black children have been at a disadvantage of these resources and have stayed missing all too often. This issue has been brought to attention by many outlets and members of the community questioning why this is happening to their children. To counteract this issue, organizations and platforms have emerged to raise awareness for these disadvantaged children and hope to bring them home to put an end to this.