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Since 1972, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law has advocated for the civil rights, full inclusion and equality of adults and children with mental disabilities. The Center accomplishes its goals through a unique combination of litigation, public policy advocacy, coalition building and leadership, public education, and technical assistance—a comprehensive approach that ensures we achieve the greatest impact. To help reduce the over-representation of people with mental illness in the justice system, the Bazelon Center pursues a strategy of diverting people with serious mental illness from needless and harmful incarceration. In its work, the Center takes advantage of important opportunities created by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Supreme Court’s Olmstead decision.

Working closely with Policy Research Associates, the Bazelon Center is providing technical assistance on the ADA and Olmstead, including best practices developed to implement Olmstead, to project sites that have prioritized justice-involved individuals who have mental illness.
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