ABSTRACT
Many deaf people in the mental health system have challenging behaviors (Austen & Jeffery, 2007; Glickman, 2009; Vernon & Greenberg, 1999). Sometimes these challenging behaviors extend to anti-social and criminal actions which may bring them into the criminal justice system (CJS). Typically, the CJS is ill prepared to accommodate them, and deaf people, who often have experienced various forms of traumatization, victimization, and oppression, are further mistreated within the CJS. These deaf people are both victims and victimizers. Whatever the causes, some have become very dangerous people against whom society needs protection. On the other hand, many are badly in need of mental health and substance abuse treatment which can be even less accessible to them in the CJS than in the mental health system. Whereas the vast majority of deaf people, like the vast majority of hearing people, are healthy and productive members of society, the subgroup of deaf persons within the CJS, like the subgroup of deaf persons within the mental health system, contains a higher percentage of persons with what Glickman 2009 referred to as “language and learning challenges” (Miller, 2004; Vernon & Greenberg, 1999). They are highly vulnerable to abusive experiences within the CJS that are not intended to be elements of the constraints and even punishments that society imposes upon them.
