This lawsuit filed in March 2020 on behalf of six Deaf and hard of hearing people who are incarcerated in Tennessee Department of Corrections (“TDOC”) facilities challenges TDOC’s failure to provide effective communication to people who are Deaf and hard of hearing and enable them to access the same programs and services as non-disabled people. … Continue reading “Trivette v. Tennessee Department of Corrections”
On August 30, 2021, Disability Rights Advocates and Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York filed a class action lawsuit against the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) on behalf of people with disabilities who are incarcerated at Five Points Correctional Facility and have been denied mobility-related accommodations they need to get … Continue reading “Cardew v. New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision”
On April 20, 2021, Disability Rights Advocates and Lynn S. Walsh filed a class action lawsuit against the State of Oregon and the Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC) on behalf of current and former people with disabilities who are incarcerated and who have been charged for the costs of the prostheses and other equipment they … Continue reading “Terrill v. State of Oregon”
Click here for community resources (English and Spanish) including information explaining the consequences of the court’s order, who it applies to, and aspects of the decision that may be useful in your advocacy. According to the April 20, 2020 emergency order, ICE must conduct custody redeterminations for all subclass members. Click here for information on … Continue reading “Fraihat v. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement”
Read the Class Notice in English or Spanish. On February 22, 2018, Disability Rights Advocates, in partnership with Disability Rights California (“DRC”), released a 50-page report on our 6-month investigation of the treatment of youth with disabilities at the Kern County Juvenile Hall and other Kern County juvenile detention facilities. Our investigation uncovered abuse and … Continue reading “T.G. v. Kern County”
Disability Rights Advocates represents Santa Clara County Jail inmates with mobility disabilities in litigation against Santa Clara County. Currently, there are no housing areas at the County Jails compliant with federal or state accessibility standards, and much of the rest of the County Jails have some sort of architectural barriers. Accordingly, some inmates report suffering … Continue reading “Cole, et al. v. County of Santa Clara, et al.”
Please see the notice to individuals who may be impacted by the class action settlement agreement at the following link: https://bit.ly/3H8v9Ln . The New Jersey Department of Corrections (NJDOC) will drastically improve the provision of special education services for people in its prisons, according to a settlement preliminarily approved by the federal District Court for … Continue reading “Adam X. v. New Jersey Department of Corrections”
Disability Rights Advocates in partnership with Public Counsel filed this lawsuit because Contra Costa County Juvenile Hall had a policy and practice of locking young people with disabilities in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day and depriving them of education. In a video, parents of young people held at Juvenile Hall say … Continue reading “G.F. et al. v. Contra Costa County et al.”
In 2012, DRA filed a lawsuit on behalf of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC) and taxpayers Barbara Michel and Laura Magnani. The lawsuit alleged that Santa Rita Jail failed to provide for basic needs of people with disabilities by forcing people with mobility disabilities to live in inaccessible housing units that lacked basic … Continue reading “Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC) et al. v. Ahern et al.”
In 2004, the California Youth Authority (CYA), the state’s juvenile prison system, agreed to a major overhaul of the entire CYA system to address the inhumane and illegal conditions of confinement which affect young inmates in the CYA system. The case was brought under state law to stop the CYA from perpetuating illegal conditions within … Continue reading “Farrell v. Allen”