Three people incarcerated at Wisconsin corrections facilities will each be paid $15,000 as part of a settlement agreement stemming from complaints that inmates with hearing disabilities didn’t have equal access to programs, services and activities.
In a statement Monday, the U.S. Justice Department said the agreement resolves an investigation it conducted into complaints the Wisconsin Department of Corrections failed to provide “auxiliary aids” and services to incarcerated individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Those aids included access to sign language interpreters.
A spokesman for the ACLU’s Wisconsin chapter on Monday described the agreement as “a good step,” but one that doesn’t go far enough.
Justice officials began investigating when inmates at Felmers O. Chaney Correctional Center in Milwaukee, Racine Correctional Institution and Taycheedah Correctional Facility near Fond du Lac complained the state didn’t provide services they needed to communicate while they were incarcerated.