Two Stillwater prison inmates with hearing loss win policy changes, but say problems persist

When a loudspeaker at the Stillwater prison ordered inmates to the front of their cells for a head count one day in 2022, at least one inmate failed to show up. He couldn’t hear the announcement.

Jamie Richardson, 61, was supposed to receive a pager alert under a prison policy that requires equal notice to all deaf and hard-of-hearing inmates. But, Richardson contended in a lawsuit, the guard charged with paging him did not send the alert, and the prisoner received a written warning.

“My client was disciplined because they said, ‘Well, you didn’t show up at the front of your cell when we called for it,’ and it’s like, ‘I didn’t hear it’ and nobody paged him,” said Sonja Peterson, a staff attorney with the Minnesota Disability Law Center. ”How is he supposed to know?”

An ensuing settlement between Richardson, fellow inmate Timothy Allen Lake and the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) was intended to fix the problem. But in a recent interview at Stillwater’s visitor room, Richardson said communications problems persist weeks after the settlement went into effect. Some guards continue to not send him pages, Richardson said.

“I would say the ones that were good are still good, and the ones that are bad are still bad,” Richardson said.

DOC spokesman Aaron Swanum said new communications protocols agreed to in the settlement were communicated to Stillwater guards on July 1. It required pager messages for general announcements to be sent immediately after a loudspeaker announcement.

“The DOC is committed to accommodating the known physical and/or mental disabilities of incarcerated people and juvenile residents so that they may participate in departmental programming, services, and activities,” Swanum said in a statement.

Richardson was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2002 after he shot and killed the ex-husband of a woman whom Richardson was in a relationship with in Two Harbors. He was also convicted of kidnapping, assault and being a felon in possession of a gun, court records show. Richardson said his hearing loss became worse after he was shot in the head by police during a standoff following the killing.

Obtaining equal access to daily announcements and phone services to friends and family has long been a point of contention for Richardson and other inmates with hearing loss. According to the lawsuit filed in 2022, there were many occasions in recent years where guards did not send pager text messages to inmates.

The missed messages meant inmates would sometimes miss daily events such as their allotted time for medication or meals, Richardson and Peterson said during the interview. Other missed daily pager announcements included pill counter availability, recreation time and church programming, Peterson said.

“It’s like being in a prison inside a prison when you’re not getting all the messages all the other inmates are getting,” Peterson said.

The DOC has long required that staff use the paging system to inform hearing-impaired Stillwater inmates, Swanum said. Before the settlement agreement, the department implemented an updated pager system that retains a log of pager messages that’s meant to ensure staff are held accountable, Swanum said.

There are currently 32 incarcerated people at Stillwater with documented hearing loss who have used hearing aids. Of that group, 19 have pagers, Swanum said.

Additionally, the DOC has added pager alerts for lockdowns and tornado warnings, and the agency has revised its Americans with Disabilities Act Paging Guidelines, Swanum said.

During the interview at Stillwater, Richardson communicated through a translator who listens through a computer program and instantly types back what is being said.

He reported several instances where he was not informed by guards when it was time for him to get an insulin shot for his diabetes.

Richardson alleged in the suit that he was berated by guards after submitting a formal complaint about a lack of disability accommodations, and was told by some that they were no longer going to page him announcements, the suit alleged.

During the interview, Richardson held up a printed sheet for pager notifications. He pointed to 31 missed announcements he counted between July 1 and 10, when there were a total of 244 pages. Nearly all of the missed pager notifications were for head counts, but one was for a missed pill counter availability, Richardson said.

Peterson did not rule out taking additional legal action if the pager problems persist.

“I hope that we’ll stop being looked at as kind of like lepers … and will instead be looked at as just human beings who are having issues,” Richardson said.