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When Joseph Prude called the police on his brother, he was : Daniel Prude, , had run almost naked out of his Rochester, New York, house into the snow. When officers arrived, new video footage shows, the March 23 encounter quickly turned violent, and Prude died from asphyxiation under a hood that officers had put over his head.

Two years before,  of Georgia also died after leaving her house during a mental health crisis on April 23, 2018. Police, called in to help, found Said standing at an intersection holding a knife. Officers shot her five times in the neck and chest, killing her.

That same month, in New York, officers answered a 911 call about a Black man waving something that looked like a gun. In fact, it was a pipe. But when , a 34-year-old father with mental illness who was well-known in his Brooklyn community, pointed it at police, they shot him dead.

Prude, Vassell, and Said are among the hundreds of people with intellectual disabilities or  in the United States  every year. According to The Washington Post, 197 of the 999 .

Police are almost always the first responders in cases of mental health crises in the United States, as they are in criminal and medical emergencies.

But the police鈥攚ho are  and 鈥攁re generally ill-equipped to handle people with mental health challenges.

From Deinstitutionalization to Disarray

As a  who focuses on criminal justice, I know this country has long failed to justly and humanely care for people with psychiatric and intellectual disabilities.

For most of American history, people with mental health disabilities were locked away in hospital-like institutions, many of them state-run. Starting in the 1950s, the physical and sexual abuse common in these facilities, as well as , spurred a decadeslong effort to close them down and return residents to the community.

This process, called , was meant to replace institutions with local mental health centers that would provide for those recently released from institutions.

However, in 1981, President  for these centers. And because 鈥攕uch as schools, housing, and health services鈥攚ere not adapted to meet the needs of these new community members, many were left jobless, homeless, and unable to get a good education.

Today, the 15% of  with   still have little support.

Some people are fortunate enough to live with their families or in one of the United States鈥� roughly 鈥攑laces that can cost up to . Other people end up .

But everyone with these disabilities is at high risk of interacting with police. Too often, these .

鈥淣othing About Us Without Us鈥�

In hopes of identifying practices that prevent avoidable deaths, I鈥檝e been interviewing people with intellectual and developmental disabilities about their experiences with the criminal justice system. Under the terms of the academic ethics boards overseeing my research, the names of all my interview subjects are protected.

One reason police encounters can go wrong, I鈥檝e learned, is that people with intellectual disabilities often struggle to comprehend spoken instructions鈥攑articularly in a high-stress situation.

鈥淧eople who don鈥檛 have [an intellectual disability] don鈥檛 have a hard time understanding what the police are asking them to do,鈥� one man told me. 鈥淚t鈥檚 different for me.鈥�

Being overwhelmed can . If this , it can lead to arrest, detention, or police aggression.

People with these disabilities are also often . A woman I interviewed鈥攚ho communicated slowly because of her disabilities鈥攕aid she called 911 on her boyfriend for hitting her. But the police believed the boyfriend鈥檚 story that she was the violent one and arrested her instead.

鈥淲hen they find out that you鈥檙e not capable of understanding what鈥檚 going on, it鈥檚 a free-for-all,鈥� another interview subject told me.

People with intellectual disabilities may struggle in court, too. When one interviewee didn鈥檛 understand a judge鈥檚 question, he told me, he was sentenced to three months in county jail for disorderly conduct.

Judges and lawyers 鈥渘eed to listen to people that鈥檚 on disability,鈥� said the woman arrested after calling 911 on her abusive partner, urging patience.

Strategies for Change

Recognizing that they struggle to handle people in mental crisis, many U.S. cities are trying to improve outcomes.

in  and recently mandated that a social worker must accompany officers to such cases.  a  started in Oregon that ensures medics and crisis workers, not police, respond to mental health calls.

These and  are a step in the right direction. But my research indicates they may not go far enough.

Police frequently encounter people with psychiatric disabilities when someone calls 911 about a person acting unusually in public. If police perceive that person as potentially violent, the .

That鈥檚 how , a Black veteran found wandering around his Atlanta apartment complex naked, died in 2015. Hill, who had gone off his medication, ran toward Officer Robert Olsen, who shot him. Olsen was sentenced to  on Nov. 1, 2019, for aggravated assault and violating his oath of office.

Nor do laws targeting police violence address the factors that lead people with mental health disabilities to need emergency assistance in the first place.

Despite growing  of the , people with and   in TV and movies. This social stigma can lead to societal rejection and isolation. And the difficulties people with mental health challenges face finding  all increase their risk of .

One lesson from the history of American mental health care is that . To serve this population鈥檚 needs, other institutions鈥攆rom education to housing鈥攎ust also be made more flexible, responsive, and accessible.

Just as shuttering institutions 60 years ago solved little, simply  won鈥檛 suffice now, either.

. It has been edited for 大象传媒 Media and appears here with permission.