Once Mavrick Fisher returns to the society, what would he face with? English transcript below.

DEAF LIFE. DECEMBER 2017 ISSUE: VOLUME XXII.

“DEAF RETURNEES: WHAT DO THEY RETURN TO?”

December is National Human Rights Month. In the Deaf community, we continue to work to eliminate hatred and bigotry, to strengthen relationships, and to foster greater understanding, inclusion, and justice for Deaf returnees–men and women who have served their prison sentences and are now returning to society and freedom. In doing so, the Deaf community should be supported by the principles embodied by human rights.

Ignoring their fate is not an option for anyone who believes Deaf returnees should be guaranteed basic human and civil rights. There are plenty of discriminatory policies against Deaf returnees that have persisted for years and years while going largely unreported as hate crimes.

With the support of Deaf people like us, we have documented and exposed multiple hate crimes and widespread violations of human rights in communication, knowledge, and information. We continue to expose incidents of hatred in the Deaf community that have all the hallmarks of language bigotry, to intensify pressure against discriminatory policies, and compel the Deaf community to impose sanction on perpetrators if the hatred continues.

The true stories of Deaf returnees have been too often hidden from the American people. They have been shamed and ignored for political reasons. Did the perpetrators encourage bullying tactics that tear Deaf returnees down?

We must take bold action to defend human rights and the core values of democracy in supporting Deaf returnees. We are tired of being attacked, seeing the truth distorted, the media playing mind games, targeting Deaf returnees as scapegoats.

Terms such as ex-convict, felon, offender, and criminal are negative. The terms returning citizen and returnee are positive.

Media images of Deaf returnees are all too often negative, grotesque, suggesting that they can’t survive in society, can’t turn their lives around, are incapable of giving back to the Deaf community. They are seen as unintelligent, sick, lazy, and not to be trusted.

How could they succeed if they actually had to earn merit to advance in society? Why bother giving them second chances?

The U.S. leads the world in the proportion of prisoners to the free population. We comprise 5% of the world’s population, yet fully 25% of the world’s prison population. In other words, our nation has the highest prison population anywhere on the globe.

Prisons are huge, profitable industries, generating 80 billion dollars a year. The systematic denial of providing resources and opportunities to help Deaf returnees after years of incarceration and brutal oppression is the issue here.

Denying Deaf returnees a chance to rejoin the Deaf community as contributing citizens is a crime. Many of them are barely surviving as second-class citizens. Many struggle with poor literacy, as they may not have been able to take advantage of educational programs offered to hearing prisoners, counseling, mental-health services, or job training.

There are innovative halfway program that teach soon-to-be-released inmates vital skills. But many Deaf inmates do not have access to these. They may have tremendous difficulty finding places to live. Some have no families; others have been banished from their families. And some returnees can’t be released unless they have a definite place to go.

As if all this were not enough, we know that they often have difficulty finding jobs. Once released into society, they are all too often subjected to harassment and discrimination in the job market. Unemployment among Deaf returnees is approximately three times as wide-spread as among hearing returnees.

There’s a “Ban the Box” campaign–removing the box as in background check–to give them a better chance of finding employment, a vital part of rebuilding their lives.

Our society should be motivated to reduce recidivism. But we know that many Deaf returnees cannot easily adjust to being free once again; they have a hard time turning their lives around and finding healing. Many have struggled to find Deaf-centric counseling because of lack of health or medical insurance.

Every day, returnees’ human rights are being violated. They are denied access to higher education, they’re shunned by society because they can’t be “cured”. They’re kept invisible. The stigma they experience is deeply rooted in the sense of struggle, a fear of being silenced.

How would it be if Deaf returnees were no longer a marginalized group–and will never be forsaken–due to our relentless resistance, reporting, and advocacy? I’d say we’d have a much better, more peaceful, more productive society.

What can we do to increase awareness about the rights that Deaf returnees share with free people?

-JT

Copyright © 2020 Jason Tozier

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