Understanding the rights of deaf and hard of hearing people in prison and jail

NINA MOINI: In prison, the intercom rules over mealtimes, medications, counts, and activities. And that doesn't work for those who don't 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 have not used them consistently. Under a new settlement agreement going into effect this month, 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. She argued the case on behalf of two Stillwater inmates, and she's on the line with Choua Yang, who has personal experience with this issue from two different jails. He joins me now with Patty McCutcheon interpreting. Welcome. Thank you all for being here.

SONJA PETERSON: Thanks for inviting us.

NINA MOINI: Absolutely. Choua, I'd like to start with you. You filed a lawsuit against Hennepin County through the Minnesota Disability Law Center after you were in the county jail in 2018. Can you tell me about your experience in the Hennepin County jail?

CHOUA YANG: Yes, I'm Choua Yang, and I'm deaf. When I went in, I was brought in by the police, and the guard met me there. I at that time was worried. I wanted to be able to call my boss and let my boss know, so I asked for video relay access. I was worried. I didn't want to lose my job, so I politely asked them for access. Nobody understood it. So from there I went in for booking process. They tried to use a video remote access, but the internet was not set up well. And I couldn't make that connection.

I ended up sitting for a day, a full day, not having access to any kind of phone, no video remote services. I went to sleep the next morning. I couldn't hear that there was things going on. Meal was announced. I didn't hear it. I was in my cell sleeping, missed my meal. When I would ask them to write because I couldn't understand what they were saying and their English was difficult for me to read at times-- so I honestly didn't know what was going on.

My biggest worry of all, of course, was that I felt that possibly my boss would be wondering where I was. I was considered a no show. I didn't have an explanation. I couldn't contact them. I just was frustrated. I could see other hearing folks there in the same situation but having access to the phone. I felt extremely isolated, no communication whatsoever. This was at Hennepin.

NINA MOINI: Sonja, I'd like to bring you in. Looking at this recent settlement that does require the state to immediately provide announcements via pagers, what are the consequences of missing announcements in prison? Choua mentioned not knowing what was going to happen with his job situation. But I'm sure there are many things that people worry about in that situation.

SONJA PETERSON: Yes, most definitely. We see these cases as being kind of like in a prison inside a prison or a jail inside a jail, that you are excluded from information that's going out to all of the hearing inmates. And so you don't know of the important events that are going on. In the prison, they do announcements probably about 20 times a day. And it's everything from count, and meals, and medication, and work, and exercise time, things like that.

And at the count, what happens is that you are to go to the very front of your cell. At the Stillwater prison, the clients I represented there, they were in a unit that had three stories. And so they would go to the front of their cell to be present and accounted for. If they fail to show up at the front of their door at count, they can be disciplined. They could be put in segregation. And that happened to some of my clients.

Or important things like medications-- they do something they call the pill run where they get called to go to the nurse's office. So their cell doors will unlock, and they can walk out and go pick up the meds that they need. One of my clients has diabetes, and so if he doesn't get his insulin, he could have some kind of diabetic shock or something like that. So these are important announcements that are necessary for their daily living and for their safety and their health. So it's important that they be able to hear all the communications that are being given to the hearing inmates.

NINA MOINI: And, Sonja, what are the laws that protect incarcerated people with disabilities? And are they applied to prisons, which we know the DOC typically oversees, as well as jails, which we know most counties oversee?

SONJA PETERSON: Yes. The laws that apply here are the Americans with Disabilities Act and also the Minnesota Human Rights Act here in Minnesota. Both of them have provision for what we call discrimination by public entities. So both the state prisons and the federal government can be brought charges against them under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Minnesota Human Rights Act.

NINA MOINI: OK. Now, Choua, I understand you had a similar experience at Washington County jail that resulted in a different settlement back in 2016. And after that experience, what made you decide to sue? Tell me about that experience.

CHOUA YANG: Well, there it was very similar. I went in and told them I needed to call my job, that it was really important I inform my boss. And they did not have any video remote access. I said I needed an interpreter. They didn't provide that right away. And I was supposed to be there for booking.

And so they have lots of questions that they ask, but there was no interpreter there to interpret the questions. They expected me to read through the handbook. I couldn't do that. They would ask me questions. The nurse would ask me health questions. I didn't understand those. I was afraid I might answer the questions wrong because I misunderstood the English phrasing of the questions. My first language is American Sign Language. It is not English.

And I understand that this system is set up for hearing people and for the English language. But as a person with a disability and ASL is my first language, English is difficult for me to understand without an interpreter there to interpret the text. And I think I spent six days just sitting in my cell with absolutely no access to interpreters, no access to communication while I was there in the jail.

NINA MOINI: Wow. And so you decided to sue. Tell me what led you to that decision and then how you feel knowing that your cases caused these jails to change their policies.

CHOUA YANG: My goal is not only for me but for other deaf people. There's just so many times where deaf feel like-- I see and we witness hearing people get all kinds of access in these settings where I feel isolated.

NINA MOINI: Now, Sonja, do you know how Minnesota jails and prisons compare to other states, just in terms of meeting the needs of disabled inmates? And what can be done maybe before it reaches the level of a lawsuit to make some accommodations?

SONJA PETERSON: Unfortunately, pretty much nationwide, people who are deaf or hard of hearing are not getting the accommodations they need in prisons and in jails. I hear from other attorneys with similar law firms, like the Minnesota Disability Law Center, that they're incurring-- encountering the same problems. What we're hoping is that increased education, increased knowledge, that this is something that they are required by the law and just required by a sense of humanity to provide these accommodations for people with disabilities.

NINA MOINI: And like I mentioned at the top, it's important because people with disabilities are actually overrepresented in prisons and jails around the country. And maybe this is outside the scope of the cases you litigate, Sonja. But can you talk about some of the reasons why people with disabilities may be arrested and incarcerated at higher rates?

SONJA PETERSON: There's a number of factors that are leading to an increased number of people with disabilities in either jail or prison situations. First of all, a number of people with disabilities are in poverty or might be unhoused. And so they may have more contact with law enforcement. People with disabilities can be interpreted as a threat for law enforcement. And so-- because they might not follow a command.

There's also some implicit bias going on, where there's a presumption that somebody with disability might have more of a likelihood of being involved in some criminal activity. And so that falsehood results in more incarceration. And we also are expecting that over the years there's been a shutting down of institutional facilities because of their abuses and neglect. And the government has not been providing housing to people with disabilities in the community. And so that's resulting in incarceration of more people with disabilities.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, a lot of challenges to be tackled. Choua, moving forward and in the future, what are some of the other changes that you want to see the criminal justice system make to make it fairer for deaf and hard of hearing people?

CHOUA YANG: I think my goal in the community that I live in is that when somebody comes into jail or the courts and they say, I need an interpreter, I'm deaf, that the place I ask for the services makes the accommodation, has the information, requests an interpreter. And I'm sure that they have interpreters, and they know how to get it. There's a lot of interpreters available, and it's a service that's widely known. But since I've been out, I know that they've started providing remote access, providing interpreters. And I've seen the improvements already happening for my community.

NINA MOINI: Well, Choua Yang, Sonja Peterson, and, of course, interpreter Patty McCutcheon, thank you all so much for coming on and bringing awareness to these issues. I appreciate your time.

SONJA PETERSON: Thanks again for asking us. We do appreciate it.

NINA MOINI: By the way, the DOC said in a statement that it has trained staff on the new policy to immediately send out announcements to pagers. It has also added lockdowns and tornado warnings to its paging system. Washington County said it now has a video handbook in ASL and provides interpreters, video phones, pagers, and other services. We also reached out to Hennepin County but did not receive a response in time for broadcast.