Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Christine Vester: Humanity Over Handcuffs: Protecting Autistic Lives in Legal Battles
Sun, 27 Apr 2025
Send us a textChristine Vester shares her mission with Humanity Over Handcuffs, a national advocacy movement protecting autistic individuals from being criminalized by the justice system. Her organization supports families, educates legal professionals, and works toward reforming a system that often treats neurological differences as criminal behavior.• Autistic behaviors like lack of eye contact, shutdowns, and sensory overload often misinterpreted by police as aggression or defiance• Families seeking help unexpectedly find themselves battling a legal system unprepared to understand autism• Courts routinely fail to consider autism as a mitigating factor, treating autistic individuals like typical defendants• Prison environments create traumatic sensory overload for autistic individuals, who may face targeting by other inmates• Incarceration carries long-lasting consequences, creating barriers to housing, employment, and community reintegration • Humanity Over Handcuffs is developing resources connecting families with attorneys, mental health professionals, and support systems• Change requires judges, attorneys, legislators, and CIT trainers working together to create more compassionate approachesYou're not alone and not powerless. Our children are not broken, autism is not a crime, and together we can show what justice should really look like—humanity first.https://tonymantor.comhttps://Facebook.com/tonymantorhttps://instagram.com/tonymantorhttps://twitter.com/tonymantorhttps://youtube.com/tonymantormusicintro/outro music bed written by T. WildWhy Not Me the World music published by Mantor Music (BMI)
Chapter 1: Who is Christine Vester and what is Humanity Over Handcuffs?
Hopefully you gain more awareness, acceptance, and a better understanding for autism around the world. Hi, I'm Tony Mantor. Welcome to Why Not Me? The World, Humanity Over Handcuffs, The Silent Crisis Special Event. Joining us today is Christine Vester.
She founded Humanity Over Handcuffs with the initiative of breaking the silence on the crisis facing autistic and neurodiverse individuals in the justice system. Through expert insights and a call for compassion over punishment, she is leading the charge to transform lives and systems. She joins us today as we explore her mission to put humanity first and why her work matters to us all.
Thanks for coming on.
Thank you, Chani. Thank you for having me on.
You're the founder of Humanity Over Handcuffs, a national advocacy effort focused on protecting autistic individuals in the justice system. Can you share what the movement is and why it was so important for you to create it?
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Chapter 2: Why was Humanity Over Handcuffs created?
Humanity Over Handcuffs is still in the early stages, but it's already become a lifeline for families because of your podcast and the platform and everyone that's joined in for the 60 Day Project. It was born from the realization that autistic individuals are being misunderstood, criminalized, and abandoned by a system that really should be helping them. We're building more than a movement.
We're building a future, a place where families can find support, legal tools and resources. and bridge that gap. Our website is currently being developed and will be a centralized hub where families can access vital information, connect with families, connect with advocates, and find real solutions. It's just the beginning. We're laying a strong foundation to create real change.
That's a list of very important things for people to have access to. Now, what are some of the common dynamics that can happen when police respond to a call involving someone this autistic?
Unfortunately, what often happens is an autistic individual is really misunderstood. When an autistic person is in distress, especially when an officer is coming and they're not aware that they're autistic, which I always say when you're making a phone call to police, make sure you let them know. Their behaviors may look unusual to a police officer.
Noncompliant, lack of eye contact, shutdowns, even sensory overload can be misread as aggression or defiant. when they're really not. We, as a family, know our children, know our loved ones when they're autistic. We live it, breathe it, and experience it all day. Some police officers are not educated in this area.
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Chapter 3: How do police often misunderstand autistic behaviors during calls?
What's really happening is the brain is really overwhelmed and their sensory overload is just like, it's firing off.
So how do families seeking support wind up battling the legal system What happened? What caused this outcome to escalate into something they didn't plan on having to do?
The system treats neurological differences like a criminal behavior. And that has to change. We have to do better. We see it in the news every day. And, you know, we have judges and attorneys and house representatives and families coming forward on this podcast. So I really hope that the prosecutors and judges really listen to this.
So when a family calls for help, they do it for the right reasons, but then it can go in a way that they never saw coming.
Exactly. They don't call expecting that they're going to get a criminal record. They don't expect, you know, I hate to say this, but sometimes guns get drawn at them. They're looking for help, protection, and understanding. And they're met with a system that's not prepared. And I'm not anti-police. There are some really good police officers out there.
Unfortunately, you hear it in the news, there's things that happen. The CIT trainers are really trying to push for better training at a street level. And it should be on a federal level, just as if they were carrying their firearms. They can't go out until they fully trained. It should be the same way with autistic individuals and mental health.
There should be a training because once that first moment turns into an arrest, it's hard to reverse that damage. It could be life or death. And even to an officer that's in that position and something tragic happens, they go home to their family. And they have to live with this too. It just, we have to do better.
I speak with families across the country consistently. And unfortunately, this is not a regional situation. It's a national one.
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Chapter 4: Why do families seeking help sometimes end up in legal battles?
It is, we're seeing it at a local, state, and federal level, from police intercept, in a state courts, in the federal courts. Autistic individuals are arrested basically for their behaviors, not because they're dangerous, but because the system misreads their needs. This isn't about intent. It's about misunderstanding. And we need a national response.
And that's why I'm so grateful you're giving the families and the attorneys and house representatives, CIT trainers, a platform to talk about this.
If after everything is said and done, an arrest happens, what are the things that the family will be facing when all this starts?
Families enter into a legal system that doesn't often understand autism at all. That's what I've found. I've been in the courtrooms. I've talked to the families. I've watched how this is all playing out. Prosecutors, judges, even defense attorneys aren't always trained in how autism affects communication or their behaviors or intent behind it. They're not career criminals. They have a disability.
The gap leads to harmful assumptions in a courtroom. And that's dangerous. Autistic people may struggle to answer questions clearly. They might stim, avoid eye contact, or become nonverbal under pressure. But the system, you know, thinks it's a suspicious behavior or disrespectful or uncooperative. It's a complete unfair lens.
I know some that we hear stories about that they think that they're being aggressive when they're really distressed and they're trying to calm their self down.
From what I've heard, the court system sometimes gives the autistic individual a real disadvantage. It can feel very punishing and, of course, very overwhelming to them.
Yes, and families are forced to educate at every step of the level. I've seen cases where autism wasn't even mentioned at the mitigation factor or where lawyers refused to even bring in experts, forensic psychologists. The individual then is treated like a typical defendant. When that process is really different for an autistic individual, they process the world entirely different.
That's why Humanity Over Handcuffs is trying to step in the movement, the series that we're doing.
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Chapter 5: What challenges do autistic individuals face in the legal system?
This can be so overwhelming for the parents involved. Where do you step in with your charity to help those families?
We support families by helping them advocate more effectively, connect the gaps, work with professionals and understand autism and educate the legal teams. But we go further than that. We work directly with the legal teams to change the culture from inside. Like I said, we're working with the judges that are coming on. We're working with house representatives.
We're working with legislation, CIT trainers.
So even though you're trying to help the families get through this whole ordeal, you're still out there working to try and actually reform the whole legal system itself.
Yes, exactly. We speak to judges, attorneys, and prosecutors. They're coming on to your show and being a voice about how autism affects perception, behavior, and intent.
I use the word perception a lot in my business because perception is everyone's reality, whether it's true or not. So what's true is that in the legal system, an autistic person is completely different. And because of that, needs to be treated as such, can't be treated the same way as others.
This isn't about leniency. It's about justice, and we've got to do better. You can't treat someone the same as a neurotypical defendant, career criminal, and call it fair if they experience reality in a completely different way, which with autistic individuals, they do. And when we treat it like this, we end up punishing people for how their brain works, for their disability.
Not for a real danger they've caused. Autism deserves informed understanding, not incarceration.
Let's focus on something that's a little more concerning to the families, and that's incarceration. What are some of the challenges an autistic person faces when they're incarcerated? What are some of the difficult situations they might come into while they're in there? And then how is it to interact with not only just the prisoners, but the guards that are there?
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Chapter 6: How does Humanity Over Handcuffs support families involved in the justice system?
solitary confinement, don't get me started on this, is often used because they have to separate them sometimes, which can do so much harm on them.
What about the staff and, of course, the other inmates as well?
Staff may not understand the needs of someone with a development disability, and other inmates may actually target them, use them because they're so naive, and even rape them. And I know we don't like to say this, but it happens.
I've heard that the prison system is very, very rough on autistic individuals. So can you expand on some of the things that affect them, and even after they're ultimately released?
It is very damaging. And it doesn't stop there. When someone's released after they've been incarcerated, they're expected to reenter into a world that hasn't changed. And without the support they need, probation rules may be too rigid. You know, services are scattered.
Housing, employment are nearly impossible to secure with a record if some of them get a felony, which could be a life sentence to them. Families are left picking up the pieces to survive, wondering, you know, if they die, who's going to take care of them? That is a real fear. You know, and some parents can't sleep at night.
Some of the judges we've talked to and CIT trainers, they have autistic individuals. These are real things. Yes, and they have those fears as well.
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Chapter 7: What efforts are underway to reform the legal system for autistic individuals?
Yeah, that seems like a very, very tough situation. It almost seems like it's a second sentence in a very different way. Yes.
It's like a second sentence. That's why we're fighting for change at every stage, from the arrest to the courtroom to incarceration to reentry. There has to be diversion programs. They just have to do better. We want to have continuing care, education for correctional staff, and real pathways back into the community that respect neurodiversity.
Now, I know you have a website. Can you expand and give us a little more information on how people can find you?
We're developing a website that will be a one-stop resource hub for families, connecting them with attorneys, mental health professionals, helping with the diversion programs, re-entry planning. Yes, it'll offer links, documents, supporting tools, and training guides, all focused on autism and justice reform.
That's great information. It gives the person an avenue to look for help if they need it, and hopefully they never do.
And none of this would be possible without the people walking alongside of us doing this 60-day podcast series. all the judges and attorneys and House representatives that have come forward to talk about what's happening in the system. And I want to thank each and every one of them, the judges who have opened up their courtrooms to change. They have the one in Nevada.
It's a whole court, one of a kind, and it's all for autistic individuals. But that's a telling sign that it's becoming more prevalent in a state and federal level. The House representatives who are listening and helping to move legislation forward. the CIT trainers who are educating fiercely, the officers out there to respond with compassion and de-escalate the Bureau of Prison.
You know, we've spoke to them for a safer space, you know, for autistic individuals. And then the families who speak out, I encourage them to bridge that gap with their representatives and attorneys and judges and prosecutors and share their story. It's the only way to bridge that gap and remind the world that it isn't just policy, it's personal. These are human beings.
We're going to look back 10 years from now and say, what were we thinking? Putting someone with autism, having that kind of disability, giving them that kind of sentence, it could be a death sentence. And it's really tough because I think if you've been in this environment and understand it, it's harsh and it's devastating. And we have to do better. There has to be another way of doing this.
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