Legal Support Staff

Declaración de la comunidad sobre las iniciativas de ASL del Departamento de Policía y las capacitaciones sobre “sensibilidad” para sordes  #StopASLCopaganda

Signing Cops Will Not Save Us, Community Power Will #StopASLCopagandaCommunity Statement on Police Department ASL Initiatives and Deaf “Sensitivity” Trainings Summary This statement discusses nationwide investments in policing, including police training. Police training has not proven to be effective in reducing violence, particularly against deaf/disabled communities. Efforts to teach ASL and deaf cultural norms to police officers claim to … Continued

HEARD’s #DeafPrisonPhoneJustice Timeline This is a brief summary of HEARD’s efforts to force the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Department of Justice (DOJ), & prison phone corporations to ensure that all disabled incarcerated people have access to telecommunication, such as Videophones (VP), Captioned Telephones (CapTel), Teletypewriters (TTY) and more. November 2012 HEARD volunteers attend Prison Phone … Continued

These comments were submitted to the Federal Communications Commission and are filed under the following dockets: Filed May 8, 2023 Filed March 25, 2013

ASL information explains the common causes of wrongful convictions on deaf disabled people.

JLM is a practical legal resource written to provide incarcerated people with information about their rights while in prison.

In solidarity with thousands of imprisoned people in more than 15 states who are striking to bring attention to & end horrible prison conditions and prison labor exploitation, HEARD, LRID and over twenty organizations released a statement responding to decades of neglect of the needs of Deaf/Disabled imprisoned people. Our hope is to end nearly a decade of illegal and inhumane exploitation of imprisoned people by the Louisiana Department of Corrections.

Junius Wilson (1908-2001) spent seventy-six years at a state mental hospital in Goldsboro, North Carolina, including six in the criminal ward. He had never been declared insane by a medical professional or found guilty of any criminal charge. But he was deaf and Black in the Jim Crow South.

HEARD created the #DeafInPrison Campaign to raise awareness about abuse of & discrimination against deaf prisoners.The Campaign aims to start a national conversation about these concerns and to compel corrective and preventive action.

Calling home from prison is cumbersome and expensive. For deaf people behind bars, it’s even tougher, sometimes impossible.