Wisconsin prisons agree to help hearing-impaired inmates under settlement

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections has agreed to provide more help to hearing-impaired inmates as part of a settlement with federal investigators.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday that its investigators had been probing complaints from inmates at the Racine Correctional Institution, the Taycheedah Correctional Facility and the Felmers O. Chaney Correctional Center in Milwaukee that Corrections officials weren't repairing inmates' hearing aids and weren't providing access to services such as sign language interpreters, text telephones and phones compatible with hearing aids. Corrections spokesperson Beth Williams Hardtke said the complaints began in 2018.

"People with disabilities in Wisconsin deserve equal access, and that does not change when they are incarcerated," said Gregory J. Haanstad, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

The settlement calls for Corrections to provide hearing-impaired inmates with appropriate aids and services, including sign language interpreters, video telephones and hearing aids when necessary. The agency must make reasonable modifications to its policies to accommodate hearing-impaired inmates, such as handcuffing them in front of their bodies so they can sign and allowing additional time for phone calls using an interpreter.

Corrections personnel also must set up a process for identifying hearing-impaired inmates when they enter a facility, provide training on the Americans with Disabilities Act to staff and pay three aggrieved inmates $15,000.

"Ensuring every individual in our care is able to receive the accommodations they need to fully participate in the counseling, educational, recreational, religious, and social programs that are essential to their well-being and rehabilitation is an essential part of our work at DOC," Corrections Secretary Jared Hoy said in a statement. "This new policy will ensure that both staff and persons in our care know the resources available and that DOC can effectively serve persons in our care, including individuals with disabilities."

The settlement marks another public relations black eye for an agency reeling from multiple deaths across the prison system in recent months.

Five inmates have died at Waupun Correctional Institution since June 2023, two by suicide, one of a fentanyl overdose, one of a stroke and one of malnutrition and dehydration. Prosecutors have charged the prison's former warden, Randall Hepp, and either other Waupun staff members with misconduct in connection with the stroke and malnutrition deaths. Hepp has pleaded not guilty.

Federal investigators also have been looking into a suspected smuggling ring at the prison. A former employee at the prison pleaded guilty in mid-September to smuggling contraband, including cellphones, tobacco products and drugs, into the facility in exchange for money.

An inmate at Green Bay's maximum-security prison was charged in early September with killing his cellmate because he was Black and gay, according to court documents.

Prosecutors in northern Wisconsin's Lincoln County have charged a 16-year-old inmate at the state's youth prison with killing a counselor during a fight in June.