Resource: Pierce v. District of Columbia

In February 2013 the ACLU filed suit on behalf of William Pierce, who is profoundly deaf but received virtually no accommodation for his disability while he was an inmate at the D.C. Correctional Treatment Facility, which is an annex of the D.C. Jail operated by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) under a contract with the District of Columbia. Pierce’s main goal, and the ACLU's, was to require D.C. and CCA to provide proper accommodation for deaf inmates, such as qualified ASL interpreters for intake, classes, and medical visits, video interpretation services when live interpreters are not available, adequate access to videophones, and visible alarms for emergencies.