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The Secret World of Deaf Prisoners

Editor's Note: The deaf face a nightmare when they fall into the criminal justice system, writes investigative journalist James Ridgeway. The following is a special report written for The Crime Report, a publication of the Center on Media, Crime, and Justice at John Jay College for Criminal Justice, City University of New York. It originally appeared in Ridgeway's blog.

In the 1970s, an antiwar demonstrator found himself at New York City’s Rikers Island jail facility for a couple of months on a disorderly conduct charge. The demonstrator, who happened to be a friend of mine, met a handful of young men from the Bronx in his unit who were deaf.

They were having trouble communicating with anyone but themselves. My friend knew a little sign language and, after a few conversations, discovered they were illiterate. With the idea of helping them improve their communication skills, he asked prison authorities for permission to order books on sign language from the publisher. The wardens refused, saying that they did not want anyone in that prison using a “language” they could not understand. (and the understanding of the deaf prisoners, of course, is completely unimportant, yes/yes?!)

Things may have changed a little for the better since then. But not by much.MORE

Personal Experience says Yeah, this is a fucking huge problem.

A Fatal Cultural Gap: Depression Among Minorities

Editor’s Note: Trained mental health professionals find it difficult to diagnose depression in minorities, most of whom are already reluctant to seek psychiatric care, because the psychiatric framework for evaluating behavior is Euro-centric. National Depression Screening Day is October 8.



Major depressive disorder is a common disease, occurring in approximately three out of every 20 people in the United States.

However, members of minority communities, especially first-generation immigrants, often express their illness in a manner that is different from their white counterparts, which makes it more difficult to diagnose depression in them, said Dr. Russell Lim, who teaches cultural psychiatry at UC Davis School of Medicine.

“We (who are trained in Western medical schools) are defining depression though our cultural lenses,” said U.S.-born Lim. “A cultural psychiatrist, on the other hand, looks for less specific signs” than those outlined in medical textbooks.

For example, a “markedly diminished interest in pleasure” is one of the signs Western-trained psychiatrists are asked to look for in a patient.

“But if you’re a Buddhist, your belief is you don’t seek pleasure,” Lim said. “You don’t ask that patient what do you do for fun?”

Or, if you are an immigrant who has come to the U.S. from a refugee camp, like many Hmong and Vietnamese have, their concept of “the pursuit of happiness” would likely differ from their white counterparts, he said.

Lim pointed out that in some Asian languages, there is no word for depression. A Hmong patient, for instance, would come in and say, “‘I have a troubled liver.’ And the interpreter would tell me the patient is depressed.”

“I’ve never had an Asian immigrant patient tell me that he or she is depressed, unless they’re second or third generation Asian,” said Lim, who practices at the multi-lingual Sacramento-based Adult Psychiatric Support Services, where the patients are mostly indigent.MORE

My Dad was all about, i don't discuss my problems with other people. Mom was like, only Americans have time to get depressed. There is stuff that is unique to culture that white Americans are unlikely to understand, unless they have really done the cultural competency stuff. I had one lady who got me, cause she and I shared same culture. Its amazing how much more freer I felt with her than with the person that I have now.

Its not a new blog, its just that i keep forgetting the damn thing

Zuky


She speaks with authority and not as the scribes.


EIDT: Sanguinity FWD/forward Feminists with disabilities for a new way forward.

something that has been rattling about my head lately

Integral Petshop Boys


Lyrics to Integral :
If you've done nothing wrong
you've got nothing to fear
If you've something to hide
you shouldn't even be here

Long live us
the persuaded we
integral
collectively
to the whole project
it's brand new
conceived solely
to protect you

One world
One reason
Unchanging
One season

If you've done nothing wrong
you've got nothing to fear
If you've something to hide
you shouldn't even be here
You've had your chance
now we've got the mandate
If you've changed your mind
I'm afraid it's too late
We're concerned
you're a threat
You're not integral
to the project

Sterile
Immaculate
Rational
Perfect

Everyone has
their own number
in the system that
we operate under
We're moving to
a situation
where your lives exist
as information
One world
One life
One chance
One reason
All under
one sky
unchanging
one season

If you've done nothing wrong
you've got nothing to fear
If you've something to hide
you shouldn't even be here
You've had your chance
now we've got the mandate
If you've changed your mind
I'm afraid it's too late
We're concerned
you're a threat
You're not integral
to the project

Sterile
Immaculate
Rational
Perfect

Now the outrage is all very well and good but has anyone stopped buying their clothing?

Ralph Lauren Fires Photoshopped Model For Being "Too Fat"


Filippa Hamilton, the 23-year-old model who was Photoshopped into a stick insect by Ralph Lauren, has revealed that the brand — which later apologised for the image — quietly fired her for being overweight.
Hamilton had counted Ralph Lauren among her clients since she started modeling at the age of 15 and she says that she considered the people who worked there her second family — at least until April of this year, when Ralph Lauren summarily fired her. The stated reason was that the label dumped Hamilton "as a result of her inability to meet the obligations under her contract with us." What Ralph Lauren allegedly told Hamilton's agency, Next, is that the 5'10" 5'8", 120 lb model had become too fat to fit into its clothing.

Ralph Lauren's behavior since these images came to light, on the blog Photoshop Disasters, has single-handedly turned a small PR crisis into a full-fledged disaster. First, the company had its lawyers try to sue Photoshop Disasters and BoingBoing, the second blog to pick up the story, for copyright infringement for reporting on the ad. The threats — and the fact that Ralph Lauren managed to get Photoshop Disasters' ISP, Google-owned Blogspot, to remove the image — not only came across as ridiculous and bullying, but only served to draw hundreds of thousands of eyes to the story. (The Daily Mail, Huffington Post, Telegraph, Current TV, and Mother Jones, among other outlets, jumped on the story with more or less alacrity.)MORE

Internets?

Does anyone have the forks to explain why this is...wrong?