Wisconsin prisons agree to help hearing-impaired inmates under settlement

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Department of Corrections has agreed to provide more help to hearing-impaired inmates as part of a settlement with federal investigators.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday that its investigators had been probing complaints from inmates at the Racine Correctional Institution, the Taycheedah Correctional Facility and the Felmers O. Chaney Correctional Center in Milwaukee that Corrections officials weren’t repairing inmates’ hearing aids and weren’t providing access to services such as sign language interpreters, text telephones and phones compatible with hearing aids. Corrections spokesperson Beth Williams Hardtke said the complaints began in 2018.

“People with disabilities in Wisconsin deserve equal access, and that does not change when they are incarcerated,” said Gregory J. Haanstad, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

The settlement calls for Corrections to provide hearing-impaired inmates with appropriate aids and services, including sign language interpreters, video telephones and hearing aids when necessary. The agency must make reasonable modifications to its policies to accommodate hearing-impaired inmates, such as handcuffing them in front of their bodies so they can sign and allowing additional time for phone calls using an interpreter.

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