The Auburn System

In the 19th century, a craze swept across the American Penal System. It was called the Auburn System, also known as the New York System. The idea was an outgrowth of the Quaker idea that solitary confinement gave prisoners much needed time for introspection and atonement. Under the Auburn System, prisoners had to work at

Deafinitely Theatre

Deafinitely Theatre is a British theater group that utilizes Deaf actors and crews to put on plays in Sign. Here’s what they say about themselves on their own Web site. Deafinitely Theatre was set up in 2002 by Artistic Director Paula Garfield with Kate Furby and Steven Webb. We are an independent, professional Deaf-led company.

After a Break; Felix Part Five

Here’s part 5 – the beginning of disc 2 – in the interview of Felix Garcia in prison, as conducted by Jim Ridgeway and Pat Bliss. Felix is much calmer in this section, and he talks frankly about communication issues, language barriers and lip-reading. He is – by the way – an excellent lip-reader, and

Guest Post from Marsha Graham

The above image is a picture of an old and dear friend of mine. It’s an analog synthesizer as manufactured by Buchla – circa 1975. I used to program these bad boys. While doing so, I learned of a device called a Votrax. This was a speech synthesizer that was supposed to be able to

Not Everything is Captioned

Sometime ago, a Deaf friend asked me to interpret the 10:00 News. Captioning doesn’t always work with live TV feeds from on scene reporters, so I was glad to comply. “All of it,” she said. “Sure.” First, was a statement that the President said the country was on an even keel. Things were improving. This

A Follow-up to Our NYT Article on Noise Pollution

This subject is a tough one for a former rock-and-roll soundman to grapple with, but apparently the Hard of Hearing suffer intolerably in loud noise environments. Well, there goes the concert career. Anyway, a few days ago we posted an article that was originally published in the New York Times, regarding this issue. Here’s the

The School to Prison Pipeline Is Even Bigger for the Deaf

This is an article published in the New York Times. It states that children with disabilities are more likely to be suspended from school, than are non-disabled students. But, they didn’t need a study to prove this. They just needed to read DeafInPrison.com. We’re well familiar with both the school to prison pipeline, and the

Demand Justice for Lashonn White

In keeping with the Post-a-Day Challenge, I’ve got tons of stuff lined up for you. Not one but 2 follow-ups to yesterday’s post on Internet Interpreting, a story on the inequality in school suspensions of disabled students and Part 5 of the Felix Garcia interview. But for right now, there’s this: *** Lashonn White is

Too Many Prisoners – From Prisonmovement’s Weblog

This is a reblog of an article that appeared in Prisonmovement’s Weblog, over the weekend. For those of you not familiar with them, here’s what they say about themselves: Against the death penalty; the United States Criminal Justice System is flawed, broken, yet fixable; Prison Reform and Sentencing Reform should be major agenda’s for each