Alabama to Improve Conditions for Inmates with Disabilities

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Alabama to Improve Conditions for Inmates with Disabilities

July 12th, 2016

Awake Goy

Alabama prisoners with disabilities will receive treatment and services that better help them live with their disabilities.

During a prisoner evacuation because of a fire at an Alabama correctional facility, a wheelchair-bound prisoner had to maneuver against the flow of walking inmates being evacuated and go deeper into the prison to reach the wheelchair-accessible exit. This situation may soon be remedied.

Impelled by a Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) lawsuit, officials of the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) have agreed to provide to inmates with disabilities the treatment and services that are necessary to comply with the American with Disabilities Act (ADT). Alabama has one of the highest incarceration rates in the country; it also has one of the country’s highest inmate mortality rates.

In 2014 the SPLC filed a lawsuit claiming that state officials knew about problems within the prison system but had not acted to bring conditions to a “humane and constitutional level.” The lawsuit claims that prisoners with disabilities are housed in facilities that cannot safely accommodate them and that they have been denied services like wheelchairs that function and interpreters of sign language.

SPLC officials report that under the agreement, the ADOC will: “appoint an ADA coordinator at each facility and hire a statewide coordinator to ensure compliance with the federal law; provide ADA-compliant cells to house prisoners with disabilities; offer ADA training for corrections personnel; implement a system to ensure those with disabilities can access programs such as educational, rehabilitative, and vocational services; streamline the process of identifying and tracking prisoners with disabilities and create a plan to protect their safety in emergencies; and establish a separate grievance and appeal process for ADA issues.”

Maria Morris, SPLC senior supervising attorney said: “Prisoners with disabilities must have an opportunity to serve the sentence they have received – not the sentence they must endure because the state fails to respect their legal rights.”