Defending the Disabled

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4.6 • 59K Ratings

🗓️ 18 January 2026

⏱️ 30 minutes

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Summary

L.A. County Public Defender Noah Cox noticed the disturbing trend. Many of his clients seemed to struggle answering even the most basic questions about the crimes they’d been charged with, questions like, “Where were you that day?” It seemed, Cox said, “like they were having troubles related to some sort of intellectual ability.” But when he dug into their records, Cox could see that while many had committed serious crimes, most had never been identified as disabled or offered resources to help with cognitive impairments. So Cox set about to change that. He helped create a new unit in the Los Angeles Public Defender’s Office dedicated to representing people with cognitive disorders.

Today on The Sunday Story a look at the possibilities and challenges of helping those with cognitive impairments stay out of prison and get the resources they need to live productive lives.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Aisha Roscoe, and this is a Sunday story where we go beyond the news of the day to bring you one big story.
0:08.3	Today we're going to talk about the crossroads of two worlds you might not normally think would intersect.
0:15.9	Disability rights and the criminal justice system.
0:22.1	Joining us for this conversation is NPR criminal justice correspondent Meg Anderson.
0:27.4	Welcome to the podcast, Meg.
0:29.2	Hey, Aisha.
0:30.4	So tell me about what you've been reporting on when it comes to disabilities and crime.
0:38.4	So what I've learned is that many people who end up in the criminal justice system
0:42.7	have a disability that affects their cognitive functioning.
0:46.3	That is the way they think, learn, remember, problem solve.
0:50.6	And unless they receive care, the problems that landed them in trouble with the law, they don't go away.
0:56.5	Yeah, I mean, I can see that.
0:58.8	But I did find some people trying to address this issue.
1:02.1	So let me take you to an office high above downtown Los Angeles.
1:07.1	The office belongs to a guy named Noah Cox.
1:09.4	He's a lawyer in the L.A. County Public Defender's office.
1:13.4	I met him there at his office, and on the walls, he has all these photos of people he has represented.
1:19.6	So this is a client of mine.
1:23.3	He'd had some really challenging periods of his life.
1:27.4	He pointed to a picture of some men in hard hats posing against the wall. He'd had some really challenging periods of his life.
1:31.7	He pointed to a picture of some men in hard hats posing against the wall.
1:33.6	Cox's client is in the back.
	...

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