Linguistic Diversity in a Deaf Prison Population: Implications for Due Process

Abstract

The entire deaf prison population in the state of Texas formed the basis for this research. The linguistic skills of prison inmates were assessed using the following measures: (1) Kannapell's categories of bilingualism, (2) adaptation of the diagnostic criteria for Primitive Personality Disorder, (3) reading scores on the Test of Adult Basic Education, and (4) an evaluation of sign language use and skills by a certified sign language interpreter who had worked with deaf inmates for the past 17 years. Deaf inmates with reading scores below the federal standard for literacy (grade level 2.9) were the group most likely to demonstrate linguistic incompetence to stand trial, meaning that they probably lacked the ability to understand the charges against them and/or were unable to participate in their own defenses. Based on the language abilities and reading scores of this population, up to 50% of deaf state prison inmates may not have received due process throughout their arrest and adjudication. Despite their adjudicative and/or linguistic incompetence, these individuals were convicted in many cases, possibly violating their constitutional rights and their rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Criminals with ‘Community Spirit’: Practising Citizenship in the Hidden World of the Prison

“…Their fundamental loss of liberty denies their access to the rights of their peers on the outside, such as unemployment and child benefit, and limits others such as access to or choice of health service providers. As some scholars have noted, this can often have differential detrimental effects upon prisoners, tending to weigh most heavily on minority groups such as deaf prisoners (Gahir et al, 2011, McCay, 2010 or those who require specialist education (Miller, 2004). Media outlets have found hot topics in contentious issues such as women in labour losing their rights to privacy and sometimes being made to give birth in chains (BBC, 2010) or the limited nature of facilities to keep children with their mothers in prison (ITV, 2011).…”

Deaf Adults and the Comprehension of Miranda

“…Deaf suspects and defendants are cognitively, psycholinguistically, linguistically, and educationally diverse (Miller, 2001(Miller, , 2004. These factors influence their comprehension of the MWW both in written English form and translated into ASL by an interpreter (LaVigne & Vernon, 2003).…”

“…Under the umbrella term of PPD, there is linguistic incompetence or the lack of language proficiency in both ASL and English and adjudicative incompetence, the inability to understand legal concepts and proceedings in such severity that the person cannot participate in legal proceedings against them (Miller, 2001(Miller, , 2004. These deaf defendants who are highly visually oriented, low-functioning, semi-lingual, language-disordered, or have minimal language skills or PPD have major obstacles in obtaining their due process (Miller, 2001(Miller, , 2004Vernon & Coley, 1978;Vernon & Raifman, 1997).…”

“…They are adjudicatively incompetent as they are unable to participate in their legal defense if charged with criminal acts because they don't understand what is going on at trial or at other legal interactions leading up to and including the trial Miller, 2001Miller, , 2004LaVigne & Vernon, 2005).…”

“…INTRODUCTION understand the roles of the defense, prosecution, and judge (Miller, 2001(Miller, , 2004LaVigne & Vernon, 2003). As a group, Deaf Americans (Deaf and deaf) are supposed to have due process, the protections of the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, and other laws under the American with Deaf Abilities Act (ADA, 1990) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.…”