Public Interest Briefs

If every aspect of your life depended on how well you performed but you didn’t know the rules, what would you do? 

That is the problem faced by deaf youths in the Los Angeles County juvenile justice system, according to GLAD, the Greater Los Angeles Council on Deafness. At GLAD’s request CLIPI filed suit against the Los Angeles County, alleging that the defendants’ juvenile detention facilities and probationary programs violate the Americans with Disabilities Act by not providing services to deaf and hearing-impaired minors.

CLIPI’s complaint alleges that the Probation Department detained one deaf minor in juvenile hall for a month and a half instead of placing him in a rehabilitation program not because of anything he had done, but solely because the defendants and the organizations with which they contract do not provide rehabilitation programs for deaf minors. Non-hearing-impaired minors in the same age group who committed the same offense would routinely be sent to a rehabilitation program. 

GLAD contends that after relegating this minor to juvenile hall rather than rehabilitation, defendants also failed to provide a sign language interpreter there. Without an interpreter, he was virtually in solitary confinement, unable to participate in any programs or activities offered to hearing minors including school. While detained in juvenile hall, the boy needed medical treatment and, because once again  no sign language interpreter was provided, he was injected with an unknown medicine without his or his mother’s consent or understanding.

Jo Ann Madden, speaking for GLAD, said, “This treatment of hearing-impaired minors is system-wide, not an aberration. Even when these children meet with their probation officers, they are not provided with sign language interpreters, and so have no effective way of communication with them. This lack of communication is especially important when the probation officer assesses the case and recommends a disposition–all without any form of conversation with the youth whose future is being decided. My fear is that some of these children will just fall through the cracks.” 

Laura Diamond, the CLIPI attorney acting for GLAD, agreed. “Deaf youths in juvenile halls and camps interact with probation officers throughout the day. Their inability to communicate with each other can result in unwarranted disciplinary action and can endanger a minor who needs medical attention.”

(continued in full brief)