Dr. Erin McCauley, Assistant Professor of Sociology, was selected for the 2025 Population Health and Health Equity Scholars Program at UCSF. The program supports junior faculty to accelerate and increase the impact of population health and health equity research. My project is entitled "Delays in Justice: Health Implications of Competency Waitlists for People with Disabilities in the Criminal Legal System". Details are available here.
Proposal Title: Delays in Justice: Health Implications of Competency Waitlists for People with Disabilities in the Criminal Legal System
Abstract: People with disabilities experience health disparities and are overrepresented in the criminal legal system. They can be incarcerated pretrial – pending a determination of their competency – ushering them into a subpar carceral healthcare system and worsening health through delayed healthcare, stress and trauma, and poor conditions. Yet, little is understood about the scope of this incarceration, the reasons for competency waitlist placement, the length of time and conditions of confinement for those on this list, and how this experience affects health. This pilot project will (1) document the size, scope, and process of competency waitlist incarceration for those with mental and neurological disabilities in California and Colorado and (2) develop an understanding of the lived experience of this process. This project will lay the groundwork for a national project to understand the burdens of this delayed justice for the liberty, health, and wellbeing of disabled people and how to curtail these consequences.
About Dr. McCauley: Erin J. McCauley, PhD Med, is a Sociologist and Demographer who is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the UCSF School of Nursing and an affiliated faculty member in the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies (IHPS). Her research focuses on the prevalence, causes, and consequences of criminal legal system involvement for individuals and families, with a particular interest in the reciprocal processes of social marginalization and institutionalization for those with disabilities. She obtained her PhD in Sociology joint with Policy Analysis and Management from Cornell University in 2021 and her MEd in Community Development and Action from Vanderbilt University in 2016.