Experts on the problems of prisoners with hearing impairments
The problems of people with hearing loss or impairment who have been under investigation and in places of deprivation of liberty were discussed by participants of a round table at the Independent Press Centre. According to the initiator of the discussion, Chairman of the “For Civil Rights” Committee Andrei Babushkin, such a person, when ending up in a pre-trial detention centre or a colony, finds themselves in an information vacuum, and their rights are infringed upon. Currently, there is no exact information on the number of non-hearing prisoners. According to experts’ estimates, we may be talking about 400 people.
As Kamran Azizov, a person with a hearing disability who served his sentence in the Kostroma region, related, problems begin even during the investigation. In his experience, the sign language interpreter provided during interrogations and in court cannot always accurately translate all the necessary information — as a result, the deaf person’s right to defence is limited. Azizov also reported that he could not communicate with relatives by phone like other convicts, and sending SMS in a correctional labour colony is prohibited. According to him, there are no light signals in the correctional labour colony (ITK) — only sound ones. As a result, Azizov was repeatedly late for roll calls and received penalties for this, which became an obstacle to parole.
Another problem for non-hearing people in places of deprivation of liberty is the lack of opportunity to undergo re-examination to obtain or extend disability status. This was reported by Alexander Ivanov, Head of the Rehabilitation Department of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf (VOG). By law, the ITK administration should organise a meeting of their wards with medical and social experts, but in practice, this does not always happen.
As Alexander Lysov, Assistant Head of the Human Rights Directorate of the Federal Penitentiary Service (UFSIN) for the Moscow region, explained, the medical and social expertise bureau is often located far from the colony, and it is not easy to bring experts there. He also acknowledged the existence of problems with sign language interpretation and suggested that VOG pay more attention to the training of interpreters.
To maintain contacts between non-hearing prisoners and their relatives, Lysov considers the use of video conferencing acceptable — in a number of ITKs, the possibilities for this already exist.
“We have the right to demand the provision of sign language interpretation services for deaf people serving sentences,” stated Alexander Borodulin, Advisor to the Head of the Department for the Protection of Human Rights in Places of Deprivation of Liberty of the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights. In his opinion, this problem should be solved legislatively. Perhaps it will be necessary to unite non-hearing people within the framework of one colony, where their medical and social rehabilitation will be carried out. Representatives of the UFSIN of Moscow and the Moscow region warned that it is practically impossible to carry out such a unification: prisoners are divided by ITK depending on the nature and severity of the crime, etc.
In response, Babushkin suggested that specialised detachments could be created. He also invited the discussion participants to think about options for solving the named problems and submit them to the “For Civil Rights” Committee. The recommendations of the round table will be finalised within a week and submitted to executive and legislative bodies, the Social Information Agency reports.