On January 1, 2014, deaf and hard of hearing prisoners in the Kentucky prison system filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky on behalf of themselves and those similarly situated against the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the Kentucky Department of Corrections, several other departments of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Plaintiffs, represented by private counsel and by the Washington Lawyers' Committee Prisoners Rights Project, alleged violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and the First Amendment, and asked the court for preliminary injunctive relief, certification as a class action, declaratory and injunctive relief, compensatory and punitive damages.
Specifically, plaintiffs alleged that the defendants discriminated against them by denying or reducing the plaintiffs' access to telecommunication equipment such as Telecommunication Devices for the Deaf (TDD) and videophones that would allow them to communicate with their friends, family and attorneys outside of the prison system. Plaintiffs who use American Sign Language were denied interpretive service resulting in the denial of governmental services like educational, employment training and opportunities, and heath care programs on the basis of their disability. Plaintiffs were also denied translation services during religious ceremonies and were not provided with an effective means of receiving prison announcements. Lastly, plaintiffs claimed that defendants failed to provide them with interpreters or other aids at disciplinary hearings, thereby denying them the right to hear the charges against them and defend themselves.
The parties reached a settlement and appointed a monitor and the court approved on June 24, 2015. The settlement required the Kentucky Department of Corrections (KDOC) to ensure a full and equal access to all services and accommodations; assign a staff member at each KDOC adult institution as an ADA coordinator; during initial intake provide effective communication, hearing assessment, and auxiliary aids and services in the form of qualified interpreters, etc.; ensure staff awareness through identification cards; provide deaf inmates with interpretation of materials; provide deaf inmates with a schedule showing when interpretation services are available; ensure deaf and hard of hearing inmates get equal access to on-site and off-site medical care, various programs, work assignments, religious services, any meetings relating to transfer and classification matters; provide interpretation for disciplinary proceedings, announcements, alarms and any other information audibly conveyed to the inmates; provide telecommunication devices and other adequate technology devices; and train KDOC employees on the implementation of new policies.
The settlement was scheduled to last 5 years, and provided for appointment of a monitor, Margo Schlanger. In February 2016, the monitor filed her first semi-annual report. The report stated that the payment to plaintiff and plaintiff's counsel was made; the requirement of hiring ADA Coordinators were nearly compliant; videophone installation is apparently compliant; free access to videophone, provision of qualified interpreters for unscheduled medical emergencies, and provision of qualified interpreters for disciplinary hearings were unclear; informational materials were partially compliant; the routine and situational reporting were difficult or partially noncompliant; and training was noncompliant.
In December 2016, the monitor filed her second semi-annual report. This one included in-depth discussion of needed improvements at 8 of the prisons, and proposed training for officers and staff.
In May 2017, the monitor filed her third semi-annual report. It discussed ongoing compliance challenges, and included several appendices:
- I. Settlement Agreement
- II. ADA staff computer-based-training
- III. ADA Coordinator training
- IV. Site visit report for Dec. 2016 and Feb. 2017 visits, with exhibits, included aggregated recommendations
- V. Recommended forms
- VI. April 2017 quarterly reporting request
The fourth semi-annual status report, filed in November 2017, focused on hearing aids. The report concluded that the process for meeting inmate audiology concerns has improved but still needs further progress.
The fifth semi-annual status report, filed December 2018, explained the state's new audiology policy, and focused on a self-auditing pilot.
The sixth semi-annual status report, filed April 2019, summarized that while progress was being made, problems remained:
Some institutions have implemented a timely and effective audiology process, managed interpretive services effectively, and even worked on improving communication with hard-of-hearing inmates by providing new amplification devices. That said, the most recent self-reporting cycle reveals the widespread continuation of two different kinds of problems. Procedurally, some institutions continue to struggle with keeping and sharing the records needed to comply with the agreement and to check on that compliance, including when I make requests for follow-up. And substantively, self-reporting and follow-ups reveal crucial areas of compliance weakness—areas that I have seen and described consistently in several prior reports, as many as three years ago. These include:
• Identification, tracking, and reporting of inmates who are deaf/hard-of-hearing
• Ensuring prompt and accurate provision of audiology services
• Providing interpretation, both in-person and remote
• Providing videophone services.
The seventh semi-annual report, filed December 2019, made numerous recommendations to KDOC about continuing issues, and included the department's responses as an exhibit. The eighth semi-annual report, filed May 2020, tracked (and included) responses to those recommendations.
The settlement term was set to expire in July 2020, but the parties agreed in a joint filing dated August 3, 2020, to extend it for six months. Monitoring therefore continues through the end of 2020. On December 16, 2020, the monitor filed the 9th semi-annual report, which found significant improvement. It included training presentations that had been provided by the monitor in October 2020, and stated:
In this current filing, although the COVID pandemic has created real obstacles, I am pleased to report yet more progress. I cannot say that each KDOC prison is complying with each and every settlement agreement provision. However, compliance with many of the ADA/Settlement Agreement requirements has been accomplished. And I believe there is now a system in place that can—if the prison authorities so choose—succeed in maintaining that compliance and in solving remaining problems. In order to assist in that process, I continue to offer recommendations for the period after the settlement term closes.
Brian Kempfer - 03/10/2014
Soojin Cha - 06/23/2016
Virginia Weeks - 03/23/2018
- 12/16/2020
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