BID’s unique Prison Project provides support, mentoring, advice and guidance to adult and young offenders, and works with their families and organisations involved with their punishment and rehabilitation.
The project provides volunteer visitors to reduce the sense of isolation Deaf and hard of hearing people face in prison. The scheme also supports people who may have been witnesses or victims of crime, offering Crime Prevention and Crime Reduction Training.
Deaf and hard of hearing prisoners find themselves in a lonely and frustrating world, cut off from their peers and denied regular contact with people of their own culture.
Access to everyday life is seriously inhibited, Deaf and hard of hearing detainees do not receive full access to health care, disciplinary meetings, training or parole meetings. This impacts on the length of sentence served and the options of a rehabilitated release, thus increasing the risk of re-offending.
The Prison Project seeks to ensure that Deaf and hard of hearing prisoners receive appropriate treatment during their punishment through the provision of support, advice and guidance to both the offender and the detaining institution.
Upon release the Project aims to continue the relationship, to ensure adequate support in terms of their disability and their reintegration without re-offending.
Finally, the Project supports Deaf and hard of hearing witnesses and victims of crime, working jointly with agencies supporting these people, facilitating communication, raising awareness and supporting where and however appropriate.
The Prison Project provides a centralised contact point for agencies
involved with the Criminal Justice System, offender management and
offender rehabilitation to support their work with Deaf and hard of
hearing people and to support the facilitation of communication and
awareness.
As English is not the first language of many Deaf people accessing even
the most routine information is very difficult, if not impossible.