{"id":8135,"date":"2009-10-15T17:00:10","date_gmt":"2009-10-15T22:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/?p=8135"},"modified":"2009-10-15T17:33:30","modified_gmt":"2009-10-15T22:33:30","slug":"the-secret-world-of-deaf-prisoners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/10\/15\/the-secret-world-of-deaf-prisoners\/","title":{"rendered":"The Secret World of Deaf Prisoners"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Secret World of Deaf Prisoners<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Crime Report, Commentary, James Ridgeway, Posted: Oct 14, 2009 Review it
\non NewsTrust<\/p>\n

Editor’s Note: The deaf face a nightmare when they fall into the criminal
\njustice system, writes investigative journalist James Ridgeway. The
\nfollowing is a special report written for The Crime Report, a publication of
\nthe Center on Media, Crime, and Justice at John Jay College for Criminal
\nJustice, City University of New York. It originally appeared in Ridgeway’s
\nblog.<\/p>\n

In the 1970s, an antiwar demonstrator found himself at New York City\u2019s
\nRikers Island jail facility for a couple of months on a disorderly conduct
\ncharge. The demonstrator, who happened to be a friend of mine, met a handful
\nof young men from the Bronx in his unit who were deaf.<\/p>\n

They were having trouble communicating with anyone but themselves. My friend
\nknew a little sign language and, after a few conversations, discovered they
\nwere illiterate. With the idea of helping them improve their communication
\nskills, he asked prison authorities for permission to order books on sign
\nlanguage from the publisher. The wardens refused, saying that they did not
\nwant anyone in that prison using a \u201clanguage\u201d they could not understand.<\/p>\n

Things may have changed a little for the better since then. But not by much.<\/p>\n

I first wrote about the deaf in the late 1960’s in the New Republic and so I
\nknow something of the background which is what really informs this article.
\nWhile researching stories about solitary confinement at Angola Prison for
\nMother Jones, I came upon an article in Prison Legal News about widespread
\nviolations against deaf prisoners. Remembering the people and culture I had
\ncaught a glimpse of in the ’60s, I got in touch with the article\u2019s author,
\nMcCay Vernon. Luckily he remember my earlier writing, and promptly agreed to
\nhelp me.<\/p>\n

The letters quoted below are from deaf prisoners to different people in the
\n\u201cfree world,\u201d who are seeking to help them, to advocate their cause. I have
\ndisguised the advocates, prisoners and prisons to keep the inmates from
\ngetting reprisals\u2014reprisals which they fear on a daily basis. You have to
\nremember a deaf person can\u2019t hear the chatter among other inmates, can\u2019t
\nhear the person sneaking up behind, is unintelligible in his cries for help
\nduring a rape.<\/p>\n

The deaf face a nightmare when they fall into the criminal justice system.
\nThey live in a world apart to begin with; but in prison they are thrown into
\na dread new environment where they literally can\u2019t understand the language
\nof either their jailers or the other prisoners. When people who have never
\nheard a spoken word try to speak, the sounds come out jumbled and
\nweird\u2014leading ill-informed jailers to think they are obstreperous or crazy.
\nAs a consequence, some deaf prisoners can end up in solitary.<\/p>\n

I discovered numerous examples of abuses and violations of the rights of
\ndeaf prisoners as part of an ongoing investigative reporting project. But
\nthe most troubling discovery I made was how little has been done about the
\nproblem in the criminal justice system\u2014and how little is known about it
\noutside prison walls.<\/p>\n

No one knows exactly how many deaf prisoners there are in the U.S. Efforts
\nby psychologists and other experts to find out have been largely
\nunsuccessful. With few exceptions\u2014the state of Texas apparently being one\u2014no
\none counts the deaf or hard of hearing in the prison population.<\/p>\n

But according to two researchers, as many as one-third of the entire U.S.
\nprison population of 1.7 million have difficulty hearing\u2014with some of them
\nbeing profoundly deaf. The researchers, Prof. Katrina Miller of Emporia
\nState University in Kansas, herself a former corrections officer, and McCay
\nVernon, a psychologist whose late wife was deaf and who has worked within
\nthe prison community for years, believe it is long past time to seek help
\nfor this ignored segment of prisoners. Almost two-thirds of deaf prisoners,
\naccording to some studies, are in jail for violent and often sexual offenses
\ncommitted against children. (The deaf are themselves at increased risk for
\nabuse as children, the researchers point out.)<\/p>\n

A person is hard of hearing if he\/she has a 50 percent loss of hearing in
\none ear. Prisoners who are illiterate as well as deaf are especially
\ndeprived when they find themselves in the criminal justice system. They
\nseldom have been educated beyond second grade and, as a consequence, have
\ntrouble reading and writing. Because they are deaf and without competent
\ninterpreters, they can\u2019t go to AA meetings or drug counseling or make it
\nthrough educational programs.<\/p>\n

The abuses begin as soon as a deaf prisoner enters the criminal justice
\nsystem and faces accusers in court. Often the hard of hearing and deaf
\ncan\u2019t hear the charges against them, don\u2019t know what the trial is all about,
\ndon\u2019t know why the guards are screaming at them, can\u2019t hear bells or
\ncommands from others. If they are close enough to the judge and look hard at
\nhim, they can read his lips. But, as McCay Vernon points out, only 50
\npercent of spoken sounds can be translated into sign language.<\/p>\n

On occasion, deaf persons will be given a court interpreter who knows sign
\nlanguage. But this can be a doubly frustrating experience: sign language
\ncan\u2019t convey the special, often arcane lingo used by defense lawyers,
\nprosecutors and judges. Most deaf people don\u2019t read lips. The idea they can
\nhear normally, or at least hear enough to act as if they can hear normally,
\nis a myth of the hearing world, Vernon points out.<\/p>\n

Sign language is enriched by mime, hand-spelling, and cued speech (which is
\na combination of signs and lip movement). In prisons and jails around the
\ncountry, there are few interpreters who are trained well enough in this form
\nof communication. Often other deaf or hard-of-hearing prisoners are
\nrecruited to help, but just as often deaf prisoners are left with few
\nresources when they are confronted with pitfalls and crises that are
\ntragically common in today\u2019s prison system.<\/p>\n

One deaf prisoner wrote, for example, that when he sought help after a
\nprison rape, the guards laughed at him. A hard-of-hearing inmate who
\nrequested a pair of headphones to listen to the radio was turned down by the
\nwarden, who said he had not filled out the papers correctly. A request for a
\nvibrating alarm clock got a similar rejection.<\/p>\n

When deaf inmates want to make a phone call using TTD\u2014a method of typing out
\nmessages\u2014the prison insists two guards must be in the room. To make matters
\nworse, the deaf are restricted to the same amount of phone time as hearing
\nprisoners, though it takes twice the time to type out the messages.<\/p>\n

Such anecdotes illustrate that deaf prisoners are faced daily with
\nviolations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which mandates equal
\ntreatment for deaf and other disabled persons. There is even a provision
\nunder the Act to pay attorneys additional sums to bring cases to correct
\ninequities suffered by deaf inmates\u2014a provision which, like other parts of
\nthe act, is honored mostly in the breach.<\/p>\n

A twitter for these people isn\u2019t just a vehicle for social networking, but a
\nlifesaving device to communicate with the hearing world.<\/p>\n

Complicating this situation, is the fact that the deaf community in general
\nrarely goes to bat for peers who are in prison. As the mother of one deaf
\nson, told me, \u201cit makes them look bad.\u201d Thus deaf prisoners are subject to a
\ndouble isolation\u2014from the prison community and from the larger community of
\ntheir peers.<\/p>\n

In a letter to a friend, one deaf prisoner wrote the following:<\/p>\n

I have been lowered to nothing more than a beggar in order to stand up for
\nsomething. I believe the deaf have a right too. But I tell you this\u2026there is
\nno help for us here\u2026I am almost at the end of my rope and believe that
\nbefore I submit this body to any form of sexual act in order to get legal
\nwork done, I will take my own life. There is no help for us here\u2026Many nights
\nI have stayed awake contemplating the end and only my fear in the Lord Jesus
\nin not accepting me in heaven has kept me from that act.<\/p>\n

Many many times deaf people raped and beat and no help from the officers.
\nHearing people steal our things\u2026when we try to talk to officers, they just
\nlaugh. So hard for us. Many, many times I just want to die but have Jesus in
\n[my] heart\u2026Now one day at a time. Pray every day to help other deaf.<\/p>\n

This letter is signed with the drawing of a small, round smiling face and
\nthe words, \u201cDeaf and proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: http:\/\/news.newamericamedia.org\/news\/view_article.html?article_id=7c4cd6c565db1beeb7f6255eefacc223<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Secret World of Deaf Prisoners The Crime Report, Commentary, James Ridgeway, Posted: Oct 14, 2009 Review it on NewsTrust Editor’s Note: The deaf face a nightmare when they fall into the criminal justice system, writes investigative journalist James Ridgeway.…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[184,1573,24,56,1572,1574,1409,1575,1576,1571,1577,191,17],"class_list":["post-8135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deaf-news","tag-abuse","tag-communications","tag-deaf","tag-hoh","tag-james-ridgeway","tag-mccay-vernon","tag-new-york","tag-nightmare","tag-prison","tag-prisoners","tag-prof-katrina-miller","tag-sign-language","tag-texas"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p752R-27d","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23321,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2013\/06\/04\/solitary-watch-reports-on-abuse-of-deaf-disabled-prisoners\/","url_meta":{"origin":8135,"position":0},"title":"Solitary Watch Reports on Abuse of Deaf & Disabled Prisoners","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"June 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Deaf Prisoners in Florida Face Abuse and Solitary Confinement May 21, 2013 By James Ridgeway and Jean Casella In the a Florida prison called the Reception and Medical Center, a corrections officer appears at a cell door and begins mocking fake sign language to the man inside, who is deaf.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/category\/deaf-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/DN_logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":29921,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2015\/01\/28\/report-blind-deaf-disabled-inmates-abused-in-prison\/","url_meta":{"origin":8135,"position":1},"title":"Report: Blind, Deaf, Disabled Inmates Abused in Prison","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"January 28, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Report: Blind, Deaf, Disabled Inmates Abused in Prison by Maurice Chammah, The Marshall Project January 27, 2015 An inmate sleeps in his cubicle in the geriatric unit of the Estelle Prison in Huntsville. 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