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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 8:48 pm
Time: 8:48 pm
Results for physically handicapped
1 results foundAuthor: Seevers, Rachel Title: Making Hard Time Harder: Programmatic Accommodations for Inmates with Disabilities Under the Americans with Disabilities Act Summary: The disproportionate incarceration of people with disabilities in the United States is a serious and growing problem. As the prison population ages, more inmates are reporting physical disabilities. 1 The U.S. has also seen a rise in the number of people with mental illness and developmental and cognitive disabilities in prison. 2 National surveys now indicate that as many as 31 percent of inmates in state prisons report having at least one disability. 3. While prison is hard for everyone, incarceration is even more challenging for inmates with disabilities. Research shows that inmates with disabilities are sentenced to an average of fifteen more months in prison as compared to other inmates with similar criminal convictions. 4 The time they serve is also harder, with more sanctions imposed and less access to positive programming than other inmates. 5 Prisoners with disabilities are also four times more likely to report recent psychological distress as compared to inmates without disabilities. 6. In a system intended to control and sanction behavior believed to violate the many regulations that govern prison life, inmates with disabilities who need accommodations are often overlooked, ignored, or even punished. Very few outsiders are allowed into the prisons, and the public rarely gets to witness the conditions in which many inmates are confined. In recent years, protection and advocacy agencies (P&As), organizations granted with special federal authority to enter facilities that serve people with disabilities, have been going behind prison walls to identify issues facing inmates with disabilities. P&As have received reports of inmates forced to drag themselves across their cell or sleep on the floor because their cane or walker was removed. Inmates with cognitive disorders, intellectual disabilities, or mental illness have sought assistance because they are unable to complete the programming required to move out of restrictive housing, forcing them to remain in segregation for years, if not decades. These same inmates may be punished for failing to follow the written rules of the prison, rules they either cannot read or cannot understand due to a disability, resulting in sanctions, loss of good time, or even additional criminal charges. Inmates in need of therapeutic diets or those who require assistance in activities of daily living often find themselves caught in an endless cycle of institutional grievances and appeals as they seek approval for accommodations in correctional policy and practice. In recognition of the growing population of inmates with disabilities, in 2012 Disability Rights Washington, the P&A for Washington State, began focusing more attention on the state's prisons, investigating the conditions of these correctional settings and working on creative solutions to some of the most serious problems faced by inmates with mental illness, brain injuries, and physical and intellectual disabilities. In early 2014, with increased funding through a private grant, Disability Rights Washington created Amplifying Voices of Inmates with Disabilities (AVID), a project with the sole purpose of protecting and advancing the rights of inmates with disabilities and assisting those who are reentering society.8 In September 2014, AVID brought together staff from the P&As in New York, South Carolina, Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, and Texas, as well as from the National Disability Rights Network, to strategize about ways to increase national attention on the issues faced by inmates with disabilities. This report, which has grown out of that collaborative national effort, aims to highlight the difficulties that inmates with disabilities face as they seek to access programs and services in state prison systems. P&As from across the country provided examples of either past or ongoing advocacy to enforce the protections of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on behalf of inmates with disabilities. By no means exhaustive, this report provides an overview of the protections afforded to inmates with disabilities under the ADA as well as examples in which P&As have advocated effectively on behalf of inmates with disabilities. This advocacy is multi-modal, ranging from routine monitoring, to informal and individual advocacy, to systemic litigation. This report begins with a brief overview of the P&A system, describes the different types of advocacy P&As use, and outlines the ADA's application to prisons. Next, this report details the work P&As across the country have done to advance inmates' rights under the ADA, focusing on three main areas of prison life: (1) hygiene, health, and safety, (2) accommodations in communication, and (3) access to programming and services. A review of this work reveals that while the ADA has been in place for more than 25 years, much remains to be done to bring programs and buildings in the nation's prisons into compliance with the requirements of the ADA. This report concludes with a series of recommendations for future action. Highlights from those recommendations include: 1) Increased federal funding to the P&A network for corrections-based monitoring and advocacy; 2) Creation of independent corrections ombuds offices at the state level in order to address inmate concerns before they rise to the level of litigation; 3) Systemic accessibility reviews by state departments of corrections to identify both physical and programmatic barriers for inmates with disabilities; 4) Increased training for prison ADA coordinators and collaboration between these staff members and the local P&As to address inmate concerns. Ultimately, this report is intended to spur interest and action within the P&A network and other prison advocacy groups and increase focus on what has become a crisis within the nation's prison system. Details: Seattle, WA: Washington, DC: Disability Rights Washington, 2016. 40p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 26, 2016 at: http://drme.org/assets/uncategorized/making-hard-time-harder-pdf-version.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://drme.org/assets/uncategorized/making-hard-time-harder-pdf-version.pdf Shelf Number: 146106 Keywords: Developmental DisabilitiesDisabilitiesPhysically Handicapped |