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Understanding the rights of deaf and hard of hearing people in prison and jail
Manage episode 428220662 series 3476283
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In prison, the intercom rules over mealtimes, medications, counts and activities, a system that does not work for people who do not hear well. This is one example of how prisons and jails can be especially isolating for people with disabilities, who are incarcerated at higher rates than the general population. The Minnesota Department of Corrections provides pagers to deaf and hard of hearing inmates, but according to a lawsuit, staff were not using them consistently. Under a new settlement agreement going into effect this month, the DOC must train staff to immediately send out the announcements and discipline those who don’t.
Sonja Peterson is an attorney with the Minnesota Disability Law Center who argued the case on behalf of two Stillwater inmates. Choua Yang has personal experience of this issue from two different jails — he settled his own lawsuits with Washington County and Hennepin County in 2016 and 2022. MPR News guest host Nina Moini talked with Peterson and Yang about the rights of deaf and hard of hearing inmates in prisons and jails, with Patty McCutcheon interpreting.
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