Philip Cheung for NPR

A few years ago, Noah Cox noticed something about some of the people he represented in court. They struggled to communicate, think logically or problem solve.

"I wanted to know their account of what happened, and I'd ask them questions. And many of them would struggle with a basic explanation," says Cox, a lawyer in the Los Angeles County Public Defender's Office. "It seemed like they were having challenges related to some sort of intellectual ability."

What Cox was seeing was indicative of a broader trend: Studies show people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are overrepresented in the nation's prisons and jails.

He set out to break that pattern, forming a team within the public defender's office known as the neurocognitive disorder team. It's

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