Picture Glossaries in Jail: Do They Work?

By Jean F. Andrews

“Jail” in Sign
Image: LifePrint.com

“A picture is worth a thousand words. ” While this is true most of the time such as in family and nature photography, pictures don’t tell the whole story for the Deaf or ELL (English as a Second Language) offender. To address their language needs, jail and prisons officials are hiring graphic art designers to develop glossy, picture aids to assist the Deaf and ELL inmates. For instance, one jail in the south developed a pamphlet made up of a glossary of 25 terms such as “correctional officer,” “jails,” “pat down search,” “bail bond”—all illustrated with one colored picture for each term, followed by the word presented in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese, and Haitian-Creole. These materials I would term “good will” materials as

they show awareness and respect for the offenders’ primary language.

Sign for “Interpret” In ASL, one would add the sign for “person” to signify an interpreter. Image: LifePrint.com

But these pictionaries don’t really provide the access that Deaf and ELL offenders need. During the jail intake procedures and during the offenders’ stay in jail there is a basic need for more in-depth, 2-way communication between the

inmate and the jail officers. Deaf and ELL offenders need qualified interpreters to explain to them the jail inmate handbook as well as the procedures for grievances while in jail. If they are sexually or physically assaulted, they need to know the procedures in getting help.

In short, picture glossaries “look good” to the outsider. But nothing replaces the need for qualified sign language interpreters for Deaf offenders, and other language interpreters for the ELL offenders.

Jean F. Andrews is a Reading Specialist and Professor of Deaf Studies/Deaf Education at Lamar University.

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May 2013 at DeafInPrison.com

By BitcoDavid

View this document on Scribd

BitcoDavid is a blogger and a blog site consultant. In former lives, he was an audio engineer, a videographer, a teacher – even a cab driver. He is an avid health and fitness enthusiast and a Pro/Am boxer. He has spent years working with diet and exercise to combat obesity and obesity related illness.

 

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Amazing ASL Video Informs About Domestic Abuse

By BitcoDavid

This video, originally posted to YouTube by DeafHope, was featured on Bellamie Harvard’s The Broken Phoenix Blog.

Not only is the message powerful and enlightening – but the Sign is beautiful. Maybe someday, I’ll be able to sign this well.

BitcoDavid is a blogger and a blog site consultant. In former lives, he was an audio engineer, a videographer, a teacher – even a cab driver. He is an avid health and fitness enthusiast and a Pro/Am boxer. He has spent years working with diet and exercise to combat obesity and obesity related illness.

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Broken Sign: Important Announcement from BitcoDavid

By BitcoDavid

I must admit, I learned this the same way a Japanese rock singer learns an American song. Nonetheless, I’m pretty proud of myself.

Announcement

►

If you would be interested in doing this, use the contact form below. Please hurry, the window of opportunity is closing fast. Shooting is scheduled for the 1st week in June.

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

BitcoDavid is a blogger and a blog site consultant. In former lives, he was an audio engineer, a videographer, a teacher – even a cab driver. He is an avid health and fitness enthusiast and a Pro/Am boxer. He has spent years working with diet and exercise to combat obesity and obesity related illness.

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Them Hearies; Who Can Figure ‘Em?

By BitcoDavid

Oregon Lions Sight and Hearing Foundation

Marsha Graham raised an interesting point, this morning. In a post on her site, she asked why Hearies often leave the TV blaring in the background, while attempting an important business call. I responded as best I could with a comment. The above links will take you to her original post, and my comment. I suggest you check them both out. The whole exchange got me thinking about communication in general, and some of the more glaring social differences between the hearing and the HoH and Deaf communities.

For example, we don’t consider it rude to talk over one another. At a group get together, say a party, we will commonly carry on conversations while others are talking around us. Our brains have learned to filter out the extraneous noise of other people talking. But I’m beginning to realize that for some HoH, that is very difficult and uncomfortable. We also carry on multiple conversations, simply interrupting one another to say hi to a passerby or when speaking in a group. Signing requires the two individuals to be more or less locked in to one another. You need to be looking at one another, and maintaining that level of concentration.

TechFond

Computers are well aware that simply because I say something, you may not have heard it – or may not have understood my meaning. When you log on to a Web site, the machines engage in a process called handshaking. A computer would never be so ignorant or arrogant as to simply assume the other computer understood the information exactly as it was being sent. I find the Deaf to be much similar in their communications. One needs to establish a visual contact, and then proceed with the conversation – and both can tell when either is not being understood.

We Hearies on the other hand, commonly will speak to the crowd, or toss a sentence fragment over our shoulders, and expect the intended listener to hear and understand. We speak to the backs of each other’s heads. Our world would probably function much more smoothly, if we also did handshaking. “This is what I just said, did you understand?” “Yes, I understood. Go on”

But what I’m finding most interesting is that much of what we do, we are unaware of doing. I hadn’t thought about the TV thing, until Marsha brought it up, but I do it all the

123-RF

time. I also talk to myself when working. I never realized it until last night. One has to remember to take one’s hat off when signing, because many signs involve touching parts of your head or face. One has to be careful not to cut between two signers. We’ve learned to stop when we see someone taking a picture, so as not to ruin the shot, but we often will walk between two people signing.

At one point, I worked with a sightless individual. He was one of the soundmen at Woodstock. A very capable engineer, and a very dear friend. He was so capable, in fact, that I would often forget that he was born blind. He could see with his hands, almost as well as any sighted person can see with their eyes. In one exchange, I asked him to hand me a certain tool, explaining that it was in the blue toolbox. He simply said, “blue? Moron?” We take so much for granted.

 

BitcoDavid is a blogger and a blog site consultant. In former lives, he was an audio engineer, a videographer, a teacher – even a cab driver. He is an avid health and fitness enthusiast and a Pro/Am boxer. He has spent years working with diet and exercise to combat obesity and obesity related illness.

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H.E.A.R.D. Public Meeting Event Next Week

By BitcoDavid

Logo image Courtesy of HEARD

Interns will present on their projects involving deaf possibly wrongfully convicted individuals, deaf prisoners & about lobbying the FCC for telecommunication access equality.

Guest organizations: Council for Court Excellence & the Corrections Information Council

We will be in the Library–>LCB112

There are shuttles to/from NoMa and Union Station Metros to Gallaudet University Campus: http://www.gallaudet.edu/Transportation/Shuttle_Bus_Services/Continuous_Shuttle_Schedule.html

Here’s the link to their FaceBook Event page, and this event will also be listed on our Events Page.

BitcoDavid is a blogger and a blog site consultant. In former lives, he was an audio engineer, a videographer, a teacher – even a cab driver. He is an avid health and fitness enthusiast and a Pro/Am boxer. He has spent years working with diet and exercise to combat obesity and obesity related illness.

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Job Opportunity – NAD Director of Communications

By BitcoDavid

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) seeks a Director of Communications to work at its Silver Spring office and oversee the organization’s communications as well as engage in marketing efforts. The Director will ensure that all communications are timely, compelling, effective, and representative of the organization’s mission, vision, and values.

http://www.charities.org/featuredcharity-NAD

The Director leads the development and implementation of the NAD communications and brand strategies in order to strengthen the organization’s engagement with its members, stakeholders, and the general public.

The Director is responsible for creating and coordinating written content, videos, graphic design & layout, look & feel, and brand management across all NAD communication channels including print (including the NADmag), eNewsletters, web, social media (Twitter, Facebook, Google+), and all public/media relations.

RESPONSIBILITIES

http://www.wtfcow.com/animals-at-work/

• Develop and implement an integrated communications and brand strategy to engage current and future members;
• Create compelling, persuasive, relevant, and accurate communications content that will increase engagement with the organization’s members and build community support for the NAD;

• Develop and execute a comprehensive and effective communications strategy in collaboration with the NAD CEO;

• Cultivate and maintain local, state, and national media contacts for disseminating press releases and leveraging public relations opportunities;

• Engage in direct communications with state associations and affiliates of the NAD, and coordinate political, legislative, and media efforts within local, regional, and national areas.

• Create awareness campaigns that utilize innovative social media tools to engage members of the community most effectively;

• Oversee the creative and editorial direction, development, production and execution of all public communications (website, NADmag, eNewsletters, social media, exhibit booths, marketing and advertising);

• Script, choreograph, produce, edit, caption, and disseminate videos and vlogs on a regular basis to maximize communications to NAD members and stakeholders, including ASL videos of content on the NAD website;

• Provide strategic oversight and support for membership and development materials, conferences and campaigns, and fundraising events and activities; and

• Promote media communications on important legal and political developments.

QUALIFICATIONS & SKILLS

http://oecdeducationtoday.blogspot.com/2012/08/second-chances-in-education.html

• Strong commitment to the NAD mission of promoting, protecting, and preserving the civil, human, and linguistic rights of deaf and hard of hearing people;
• Experience, at least four years preferred, in a communications role (general writing, online writing, or marketing-related writing experience a plus), and prior experience with digital communications;

• Knowledge and expertise with social media;

• Experience with content management systems and contact relationship databases;

• Skilled at developing content including ability to translate policy issues into communications that  resonate with a diverse range of stakeholders;

• Experience with fast-paced advocacy campaigns;

• Comprehensive strategic thinking and rapid problem-solving skills to effectively handle crisis communications;

• Fluent in ASL and in English, with an ability to write and edit quickly and clearly;

• Familiar with the deaf and hard of hearing community, its culture and heritage;

• Versed in video production and editing, captioning, and graphic design concepts;

• Ability to set and adhere to strict deadlines, and comfortable working in a fast-paced, ever-shifting environment;

• Excellent planning and organizational skills; and

• Exceptional attention to detail.

OTHER INFORMATION

http://www.bailbondsguys.com/services/cash-bond/

Salary will be commensurate with candidate’s experience. This position includes generous benefits.

The successful candidate will take the position at the Silver Spring, MD office of the NAD, with flexibility given for transition from out of state.

Deadline for submission is January 9, 2013, with a goal of hiring before the end of January 2013.

Please send your cover letter, resume, list of references, writing samples and any other relevant materials via email to:  jobs@nad.org

Here’s the link to the original listing:

http://www.nad.org/news/2012/12/nad-seeks-director-communications

Now go get ‘em. Good luck – and be sure to mention that you learned of the job through DeafInPrison.com.

BitcoDavid is a blogger and a blog site consultant. In former lives, he was an audio engineer, a videographer, a teacher – even a cab driver. He is an avid health and fitness enthusiast and a Pro/Am boxer. He has spent years working with diet and exercise to combat obesity and obesity related illness.

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The Role of Early ASL Learning and Linguistic Competence of Deaf Individuals

By Jean F. Andrews

Map of the USA in ASL (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

American Sign Language (ASL) is seldom learned early by parents of deaf children when the diagnoses of hearing loss occurs. As a result, few deaf children have strong ASL role models in the home. This has important educational implications. But it also has criticaL repercussions when the deaf child grows into a deaf adult and gets caught in the criminal justice system.
In almost all (with the exception of one), cases where I interviewed deaf suspects or inmates, I have found that they had learned ASL after the age of five. Some even learned it later in junior high or high school. Most all had English reading levels of 4th grade or below.
ASL plays a critical role in a deaf individual’s overall linguistic competence in both ASL and in English. When they learn ASL late, this often delays their ability to learn English. Research has shown strong links between later ASL proficiency and English Literacy.

http://onebookoneweekoneyear.blogspot.com/

Lack of ASL proficiency also affects their abilities to effectively work with a sign language interpreter in a police, legal or correctional setting.
Part of the problem is that we have few strong ASL/English bilingual Early Childhood Programs so deaf children are delayed in access to ASL. Another part of the problem is that hearing parents are too busy to learn ASL. They work long hours in jobs where they cannot fit in a sign language class. As a result, their deaf child becomes their sign language teacher and this further delays the deaf child’s acquisition of concepts and language structures because they do not have strong ASL linguistic role models.
One solution to helping parents learn ASL is through online ASL classes. With today’s technology, the video quality is quite good and recent research by Dr. Curt Radford, Professor of Deaf Education at Utah State University has shown that online ASL learning is possible. His recent dissertation completed at Lamar University found that university students in the ASL online class did just as well as ASL students in face to face class.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC_compatible

One creative outcome of Dr. Radford’s research is that he has recently developed an online ASL program for parents. It is reasonably priced and available 24/7 for today’s working parent. www.deafed.org
It may seem like a long stretch to connect early ASL acquisition and signing abilities of deaf adults in the criminal justice system who have difficulty understanding sign language interpreters. But the relationship is there. When audiologists, physicians, and educators deny the deaf children and his parents with information on the benefits of ASL as a language, they are not seeing the big picture. Deaf children need English and ASL as early as possible to achieve linguistic competence in both languages. And Dr. Radford’s parent ASL online course as well as other available online resources that achieve this same goal are good places to start.

Jean F. Andrews is a Reading Specialist and Professor of Deaf Studies/Deaf Education at Lamar University.

 

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Angela McCaskill Speaks Out

By BitcoDavid

This video was taken from the Baltimore Sun, and captioned by me for this site. I normally don’t do that. Typically, if a captioned version is unavailable, I will forgo posting it at all – much as I may like to. Unfortunately, I feel that this story is important enough so as to necessitate posting this video. I will cite the source and link back to it, and hopefully there will be no hard feelings.

It is essential for me to state that I do not agree with this

http://www.afro.com/sections/news/afro_briefs/story.htm?storyid=76437

woman’s politics, at least as they pertain to this particular issue. I have long been a supporter of equality in marriage rights. Further, we have definite differences in opinion as to religion.

However, I honestly believe that Ms. McCaskill is being unfairly targeted by Gallaudet and by the Liberal and Gay communities. If we want equal treatment and a level of tolerance, we need to be able to afford those same rights and privileges to those with whom we disagree. I sincerely hope that Gallaudet University rethinks their stance and reinstates Angela McCaskill.

Here’s the citation link to the original video:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/videogallery/72916872/News/VIDEO-Gallaudet-administrator-speaks-about-her-suspension

DeafInPrison.com thanks them in advance for their understanding regarding our use of their intellectual property.

Angela McCaskell

►

BitcoDavid is a blogger and a blog site consultant. In former lives, he was an audio engineer, a videographer, a teacher – even a cab driver. He is an avid health and fitness enthusiast and a Pro/Am boxer. He has spent years working with diet and exercise to combat obesity and obesity related illness.

 

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Sean Forbes is a “Def” Deaf Rapper

September at DeafInPrison.com

View this document on Scribd

Individuals with Disabilities and the Issue of False Confessions

One way to get a confession
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Torture_Chamber_of_the_Inquisition_v2.PNG

False confessions are more common than expected. The most common explanations are that the suspect experiences fear, intimidation, frustration and “just wants to go home.”

Deaf individuals as well as other vulnerable groups are at risk for making false confessions because of their communication differences and disabilities, youth, and personality characteristics.  In one case I worked on the detectives did not use a sign language interpreter with a deaf woman suspect but instead used written communication and lipreading.  The detectives were not aware that the deaf woman had a second grade reading level, could barely write an English grammatical sentence, and was guessing and reading body language to try to determine what the detectives were asking her.

And here’s another
http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/t/torture_chamber.asp

Furthermore, police officers are often trained in using coercive techniques, asking complex questions, repeating questions, making false promises, or threats, or using confusing and ambiguous language to force the false confession. In this article, Individuals with Disabilities and the Issue of False Confessions, published in the Champion, July 2012, p. 34-42, Dr. Vernon and I provide recommendations that can be adopted such as mandatory video recording so that vulnerable populations such as deaf individuals are provided their Constitutional Rights and to ensure there is documentation that the confession is reliable and voluntary.

[Sadly, the link to this article is unavailable, as the Champion has chosen to place it in their protected area. I have included links to their membership page, should you want to join and access it that way. Guest memberships cannot access the protected area. --BitcoDavid]

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[***Update - Dr. Andrews was kind enough to e-mail me a PDF of the full article. Here's the link. - BitcoDavid]

False Confessions

 

This is Actually Pretty Funny

I got it from Deaf News Today. It’s captioned, so everybody should be able to appreciate it.

Enjoy!

 

Do Deaf people dream in ASL?

Photo Courtesy of:
http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/tigra62/tigra621103/tigra62110300004/9173593-friends.jpg

Often they do, but it depends on how long they have been deaf and what form of communication is natural to them. You can often see deaf people who are sleeping, talking to themselves in their sleep in full or half formed sign. Many report that the characters in their dreams use the same range of sign – regional professional or technical signs – and with the range of skill as I’ve seen in them while awake.

Deaf friends have told me that they dream they can hear, but since they don’t really know what that entails, or how speech sounds, they imagine some pretty bizarre things.

I have a friend whose parents I had known for quite a few years. I was sad when her mother died. And one day, I was talking to her about her family and I said, “I really miss your mother. We had quite a few telephone visits – and I always knew it was she, as soon as I picked up the phone. She had a very pleasant roughness to her voice. A texture that was unique.”

My friend looked at me in surprise and said, “Are you telling me that people have different voices?”

http://www.virginmedia.com/science-nature/amazing-bodies/10-things-about-human-body.php?ssid=6

I told her that not only are our voices different, but most of our emotions were shown in the voice, and not as she had imagined, in face or body language. This surprised her. I also told her that we sometimes play or express other moods with our voices conveying one thing and our body language, another.

Think about what it must be like in prison, where voices are kept dead flat – which translates into dead flat ASL.

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More News from HEARD

Washington County county jail. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We wanted to let you all know a group of RIT students is working on an independent study project that focuses on Deaf Defendant/Prisoner Rights at the county jail and local prisons.  This project is being led by Attorney-Professors Michael Stein & Jennifer Gravitz.

 

The group will focus on finding and documenting info on deaf prisoners to assist with HEARD Deaf/Deaf-Blind Prisoner database building; working with the county jail to establish better ADA enforcement policies; assisting with VP issues (the jail there has one, but they say it can only be used to contact the public defender “bc of technical issues”); and translating policies & procedures into ASL, among other things. HEARD will use information from the students’ and professors’ experiences to inform our advocacy across the nation. As far as we know, this is the only class of its kind in the nation.  

 

Here’s one that’s near and dear to my heart. Middlesex County Courthouse and it’s jail as seen from the front. The jail is near the top of the tower. Image credit:
http://www.mass.gov/courts/jury/170.htm

We are super-excited about this amazing project, & thank Michael & Jennifer for making it a reality.  We hope to see similar projects popping up at universities across the country!!!!  If you have any connections at universities, please share our information with them.

The following came from the HEARD Web site:

HEARD’s mission is to identify and remove barriers that prevent the deaf from participating in and having equal access to the justice system by enhancing the competence, capacity, and capability of justice professionals to manage language access and ability rights issues; and to empower the Deaf Community through education and advocacy.

HEARD’s vision is to create a universally accessible American justice system that equitably serves the people with hearing loss.

HEARD facilitates collaboration among deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing individuals because HEARD views access to the justice system as a fundamental human right that we all should be working to make a reality.

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Inmate Letter from Montana – 2nd in HEARD series

http://www.care2.com/news/member/407433860/1422338

Here’s the link to the PDF of this second inmate letter, courtesy of HEARD.

HEARD Montana Inmate Letter

Related Stories

Montana State Prison: Female Guards Fired for Sexual Misconduct

 

Guest Post from Marsha Graham

Image courtesy of http://www.gearslutz.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-electronic-music-production/455831-buchla-news-2.html

The above image is a picture of an old and dear friend of mine. It’s an analog synthesizer as manufactured by Buchla - circa 1975. I used to program these bad boys. While doing so, I learned of a device called a Votrax. This was a speech synthesizer that was supposed to be able to convert text to speech. Problem was… well, it didn’t work too well.

I should also tell you that part 5 of Felix’s interview will be up tomorrow. I was hoping to have it ready for you today, but I ran into a problem with the aspect ratio – which took me some time to fix. The interview is very good though, and he devotes a lot more time to language and communication issues.

All of which has nothing whatsoever to do with this post.

***

A few days ago, we posted an article about Internet Interpreting possibilities, entitled Inspired by a Lipreading Mom. This response was written by Marsha Graham – a fellow blogger for whom we have much respect and gratitude.

I’d like to clarify some things. I don’t know everything, but I’m getting a pretty good grip on communication modalities.

CART is relatively good for oral deaf (note the lower case for deaf), while it is less good for the Deaf (upper case – Deaf culture) community. CART has it’s limitations as the operator has to load “dictionaries” in it. It is a stenotype machine, not a typewriter.

For someone who is a native ASL speaker CART is in English. ASL is NOT English. ASL uses some English words, particularly in finger spelling. However, ASL is its own language. It came from French Sign Language. We still have about 60% compatibility with FSL. SEE is English. ASL (not SEE) is the 4th most spoken language in America. That will probably change in the next few decades to reflect SEE in schools.

I was talking with a terp friend and we were discussing signing songs. She mentioned a line of a song and I realized that in ASL it would have none of the same “words” as in English. The grammar is different, the syntax is different. When we see people signing songs on YouTube it is really more SEE or PSE than ASL.

I don’t see using a lot of technology to fill the gap outside of office locations – at least not at this time. I can use FaceTime to talk to Deaf friends, but the Girl Scout needed someone to be there for rock wall climbing. This isn’t happening on an iPhone or even a 4G iPad. Human required. And, honestly, captioning is cold in comparison to human to human communication.

I have a friend who uses Captel and it is okay for when the CI isn’t cutting it and she needs help while on the road (on her cell phone). Other than that she uses VP.

Technology like Purple is fine for doctor’s offices and stuff but it is not ready for prime time for things like scout troops.

Social media connects lots of people including the deaf, the blind, the physically disabled, etc. It levels the playing field in many ways. However, it is also true that many native ASL signers who are older and were not educated using SEE are often wretched communicators in writing. They do better with VLOGS. As I said, ASL and English are distinct languages.

Ditto the blind – individuals who are blind from birth and use braille as a first written language often have terrible written English skills as braille 2 and 3 are full of contractions (to save space). I’ve been on email lists with many blind from birth and many of them cannot spell, punctuate, etc to save their lives.

Image courtesy of http://www.courtreps.com/hws-info.html

I suppose that I should add that the pre-lingually Deaf Blind have the added difficulty of using ASL to talk with humans and Braille to read and write. The issue with higher grades of Braille (Grade 1 equates letter to letter with English) use contractions, so by the time the Deaf Blind child really gets into “writing” Braille is the way to go. Braille, due to it’s contractions, it is not written English. It is sort of like the phonemes the stenotype machine converts into English. When Deaf Blind go on the net, unless someone has schooled them how to convert Grade 3 Braille into English, they have serious problems with written communication.

And how do I know all this? Ex was blind and learned Grade 1 Braille late in life as he had been partially sighted much of his life and learned English. Grade 1 Braille is English. When he hit Grade 2 Braille it was like he hit a wall. All he ended up doing was labeling things with grade 1. I knew probably a thousand blind folks online through him and even tested Jaws For Windows, Window Eyes, and HAL and wrote a technical paper on them comparing the ins and outs of those text to speech screen readers.

Inspired by a Lipreading Mom

A recent conversation with Shanna Groves and Marsha Graham regarding the Girl Scouts unwillingness to utilize interpreters, got me to thinking. The Internet is the greatest invention of the 20th century because it creates channels of access that were previously unavailable.

Blog publishing is one example. Prior to the Internet, those of us who wanted to write, needed either a publisher or steady media employment. Now, anybody with an Internet connection can be another Proust.

The same holds true with communications technologies for the Deaf. In the old days, an ASL interpreter was the only option open to Deaf people seeking to communicate with the hearing. Now, we have numerous Internet and intranet options.

One such option is C.A.R.T. or Computer Assisted Realtime Translation.  Here’s the link to the N.A.D. Page:

http://www.nad.org/issues/technology/captioning/cart

and here’s the Wiki page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_Access_Real-Time_Translation

But there’s an option that I find even more exiting. Internet Interpreting. We already have videophone services that allow the Deaf to talk on regular phones without having to use the cumbersome typing keyboards associated with TTY communications.

Internet Interpreting would be essentially the same thing, but it could be done through something like Skype, allowing for interpreting services via laptop or even smartphone.

I don’t know if these services actually exist yet, but they should – and they can. They can be implemented fairly inexpensively, allow for increased employment and deployment of ASL interpreters, and vastly benefit both the Deaf and hearing communities.

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/eniac.html

The above image is a shot of dear old Eniac – the first real digital computer in the universe, circa 1944. It utilized tens of thousands of vacuum tubes, was programmed via punch tape and had the computing power of a modern digital wristwatch.

Inmate Letter Dated March 15th, 2012

http://www.aetv.com/the-squad-prison-police/photos/#/the-squad-prison-police/photos/the-squad/entire-squad.jpg

Sadly, the original letter was barely legible. After a struggle, I managed to translate it – roughly – for you here. I tried to maintain the inmate’s voice, while working to make sense of it.

–Pat.

 

Hello to the peoples.

Thanks for your support of the deaf people who have suffered in prison for 20 up to 25 years in prison. Now, I have fought with this life in prison. Life is sorrowful with other inmates tricking me as inmates wrote a request form to put me in the hole (confinement) while I was not knowing how they tricked me locked me up for nothing.

Because the deaf person want to stay out of trouble or the deaf person can be beat [for] using sign language to communicate. Some other inmates don’t understand what deaf people talk about. Deaf people refuse to cooperate with troublemaker for making money from someone’s eles’s cell property. Then the hearing people took the request form to and wrote my room number on it. The Sergeant officer ordered deaf person to be handcuffed without knowing what happened just that you got to see the Captain in his office. Deaf person could not reach anyone to get an interpreter.

This the life of a deaf person… They are violating our civil rights… I have a problem, that I cannot find a way to write medical to explain I need surgery on my right elbow. Medical paperwork is hard to understand, the vocabulary deaf person cannot understand. It is hard to explain the problem to the doctor. It is tough to explain the power the doctor has.

The doctor knows that deaf person cannot write right and says “Aha!, Well inmate you gonna be alright or I can cut off your arm. It will be good.” So the deaf person say “Arghh, that can’t be, to cut off the arm!” Then deaf person gives up and that is how deaf person has been frustrated all these years. That is not fair for these hearing people com out with beautiful braces on their knee and already had surgery. The deaf people may never have good legs and arms. That is not fair. Also, I cannot afford to pay another person to explain to the doctor, it is hard to tell doctor the right answers. Only God know everything.

I am a little hearing impaired. I understand 10% when I hear a loud one I can hear words sometimes. I have been in prison for 22 years. I will have to go back to court real soon. I never went to the courtroom or communicated with the policeman in the situation.

Also, now I am in AA meetings. There is no interpreter, I will be filing a grievance soon. The medical staff has refused to give me ID card as Deaf and Hearing Impaired. They did give them where I came from.

Anyway, hope you enjoy reading my journey on these pages. Thank you.

http://images.lib.uconn.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/cho/id/16255/rec/10

Deaf In Prison: How Do Correctional Officers Treat Deaf Inmates?

Reblogged from CrimeDime:

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by BitcoDavid* of DeafInPrison.com

This is a very interesting question, because one of my goals with DeafInPrison.com is to get some interviews with wardens and corrections officers. Going by the stories I’ve gotten in some of our inmate letters – from deaf inmates – the treatment is nothing other than abysmal.

These people are commonly beaten, raped, and confined to solitary.

Read more… 534 more words

Here's the 2nd installment of my interview with CrimeDime They've done a fabulous job in writing up and formatting this entire series, and have earned the gratitude of myself and DeafInPrison.com