TRANSCRIPT AND DESC: Howard is standing in front of a black wall.
HOWARD: This video is our priority report on the “Campaign to Spotlight Oppression of Deaf and Hard of Hearing People in the Justice System.”
In the two years since the Hartford Conference, the NAD has been hard at work to assess how we can improve the justice system. There are several parts of the justice system, and each part is very challenging with barriers, discrimination, and oppression for deaf and hard of hearing people, especially deaf and hard of hearing BIPOC.
The justice system has different parts that has its own issue, including:
Law enforcement – when law enforcement encounter or arrest deaf and hard of hearing people, officers usually have no idea how to communicate with them or don’t have any understanding of Deaf Culture. As a result, there is usually miscommunication and misunderstanding that can lead to wrongful arrest which leads to jail time.
Jails – upon being arrested, deaf and hard of hearing people are put in jails but there is usually no way for them to make calls on VPs or other telecommunication devices to contact family and friends. And there is usually no interpreter or any other kind of communication access in the jails.
Lawyers – when a deaf or hard of hearing person is assigned a lawyer or hires a lawyer, most lawyers do not understand Deaf Culture or their obligation to provide sign language interpreters. This leads to miscommunications and a failure to provide legal representation of deaf and hard of hearing people in court which can lead to wrongful convictions.
Now, as for courts – courts also have the same issue. Will they provide communication access? Do they understand Deaf Culture? Court interpreters must be top quality and trained, and CDIs are necessary to make absolutely sure that deaf and hard of hearing people who are charged with crimes fully understand what is going on in the courtroom and are able to help in their defense. Otherwise, deaf and hard of hearing people are wrongfully convicted of crimes. Then they will be sent to prison.
Prisons – there are no VPs, no connection with the outside world, no alerting system in place to acquaint person in their environment, no captioning, no interpreters… There is no way for deaf and hard of hearing people in prison to have communication access for medical appointments or educational programs.The prisons across the country are completely inaccessible. All issues are equally horrible.
Lastly, probation and parole – usually when a person is released on parole or probation, they are told all the rules to make sure they understand what not to do or they will end up back in prison. But they do not make sure that there are interpreters and CDIs so deaf and hard of hearing people fully understand the rules of parole and probation, and as a result they might break a rule without realizing it is not allowed and end up serving more time on their sentence. This is not fair because they did not have clear communication access to fully understand the rules.
These are the various parts of the justice system and it is clear that there is so much oppression and discrimination for deaf and hard of hearing people.
We recognize and give a great deal of credit to HEARD, an organization that has been advocating for years for many deaf and hard of hearing people who have endured such oppression and discrimination in all of these parts of the justice system: law enforcement, courts, attorneys, jail, prison, and probation. We are thankful to HEARD for all its work in this area and for bringing awareness to the deaf and hard of hearing people who have suffered in this system. Thank you, HEARD, for all of your work.
The NAD, in the past two years, has analyzed and determined different approaches and responses for each part of the justice system.
For law enforcement, we’ve looked at how to change the police system. The National Association of State Agencies serving the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (NASADHH) is a coalition of all state commissions for the deaf and Office of Deaf and Hard of Hearing (ODHHs) across the country. NASADHH has been studying the law enforcement and deaf issue on a state level. They have looked into how to train the law enforcement in terms of how the officers approach deaf and hard of hearing people. NASADHH and the NAD have collaborated and been working together. This effort requires collaboration with other stakeholders including HEARD, NBDA, NCAD, Council de Manos, NHLAD, groups serving deaf indigeous people, and deaf with other disabilities such as DeafBlind, Deaf with autism, and Deaf people with Cerebral Palsy. These are just a few of the groups that need to be part of this discussion about what needs to happen to create a better law enforcement system including training. We recognize that training officers is not enough, especially given what happened to George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement. Training, alone, is not enough. We will need to explore the Defund/Abolish approach to transform how law enforcement works in the future of how we can use social workers and other services and not be limited to law enforcement. We need to figure out how to make this approach work for deaf and hard of hearing people with cultural understanding and communication access. There will be a summit or roundtable action plan with these stakeholders in the future.
Other than law enforcement, with jails, prisons and probations, the NAD has had to file lawsuits against several jails and prisons establish standards for jails and prisons to provide VP, alarms, interpreters, captioning, and communication access within prisons. Our lawsuits are hopes of creating system change.
As for parole/probations, the NAD has partnered with HEARD and the ACLU to sue the Georgia Prison and the Georgia Parole/Probation system, to establish a model for all other states.
As for courts, NAD created a guideline for all courts on how to provide communication access for any deaf or hard of hearing person that comes into the courts with the support of the American Bar Association. The NAD developed the guideline. The ABA has reviewed and approved for release. This guideline is shared widely across all courts and is expected to follow. Many courts still do not provide full communication access, including interpreters or CDIs. We are looking at different ways to increase awareness within the courts to provide the guidelines and to provide interpreters and CDIs. Our work still continues.
For attorneys, many are unaware of Deaf Culture. Therefore, a part of our approach is by establishing Communication Access Funds (CAF) in all 50 states. Attorneys with licenses are required to pay an annual fee towards CAF. The CAF will push for additional fees to establish an interpreting fund. This way, all interpreters could always be provided to attorneys who represent deaf or hard of hearing clients. Efforts continue to make this become a reality and establish CAF in all 50 states.
All of these challenges are a lot of work. The NAD is not able to do this alone. We must continue to collaborate with HEARD, ACLU, NASADHH, and all other stakeholders to work towards this goal. This work will continue beyond this term. We cannot stop until we get justice and equity. Thank you.