Unit 4 Mentally Ill Inmates and Inmates With Disabilities - Lesson 1 - Americans With Disabilities Act PDF

Unit 4 Mentally Ill Inmates and Inmates With Disabilities Lesson 1 Americans With Disabilities Act Lesson Goal You will be able to understand the role of the Americans with Disabilities Act when supervis- ing an inmate who is disabled. Think About This An inmate in your housing section who...

Unit 4 Mentally Ill Inmates and Inmates With Disabilities Lesson 1 Americans With Disabilities Act Lesson Goal You will be able to understand the role of the Americans with Disabilities Act when supervis- ing an inmate who is disabled. Think About This An inmate in your housing section who is disabled is continually delayed in the shower and often misses the time for an inmate count. Will you treat them any differently than the other inmates? How will you manage this issue? The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) defines a disability as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of a person’s major life activities. ✅ CO741.1. Know the terms associated with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) definition of disability Major life activities include caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working. A physical impairment is any physical disorder or condi- tion, disfigurement, or anatomical loss affecting one or more body systems. A mental impairment is any mental or psychological disorder, such as intellectual disability, neurocognitive disorder, emotional or mental illness, or specific learning disabilities. ✅ CO741.2. Know the physical or mental conditions that the ADA regards as impairments that contribute to a disability Specific impairments may include: contagious and non-contagious diseases and conditions orthopedic, visual, speech, and hearing impairments cerebral palsy epilepsy muscular dystrophy multiple sclerosis Chapter 7 Supervising Special Populations / 213  cancer heart disease diabetes intellectual disability emotional illness specific learning disabilities HIV disease (with or without symptoms) tuberculosis drug addiction or substance use disorder The term disability does not include the following: cross-dressing, gender identity pedophilia, exhibitionism, voyeurism, or other sexual behavior disorders compulsive gambling, kleptomania (the urge to steal), pyromania (the urge to set things on fire) substance use disorders resulting from a current illegal use of drugs Apply the ADA The ADA provides guidelines for housing and monitoring disabled inmates. Facilities must have a certain percentage of housing units with accessible mobility features to areas used by inmates for visitation, dining, recreation, educational programs, medical services, work programs, religious services, and participation in other programs that the facility offers. Housing for inmates with disabilities must be in the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs and security classifi- cation of an inmate. A physician should assess and diagnose any inmates who have limitations in daily living activities that need a reasonable accommodation. A reasonable accommodation refers to any modification or adjustment that will allow a qualified inmate with a disability to participate in the programs, services, or activities of an institution or facility. ✅ CO741.3. Understand how a facility complies with the ADA when providing a reasonable accommodation for an inmate with a disability When determining any reasonable accommodation, public safety and the health, safety, and secu- rity of all inmates and staff are the overriding considerations. A service plan should outline the 214 / Florida Basic Recruit Training Program (CO): Volume 1 reasonable accommodations to meet an inmate’s medical and mental health needs, and housing consistent with the inmate’s custody level and medical status. Specific institutions may provide custody and care for inmates who have more specialized housing or service needs. These inmates will require health-care appliances, such as: wheelchairs manually powered mobility aids, such as walkers, crutches, canes, orthopedic prosthe- ses or braces hearing aids prescription eyeglasses Agencies may provide auxiliary aids for blind or deaf inmates, such as: qualified interpreters on site note takers, written materials, exchange of written notes telephone handset amplifiers, telephones compatible with hearing aids closed caption decoders, closed captioning voice and text telecommunications products and systems qualified readers, taped texts, audio recordings, Braille materials, large print materials It is the joint responsibility of the agency and an inmate to maintain all health-care appliances in good repair and operation. Avoid removing any health-care appliance that the inmate has prop- erly obtained while in custody unless there are legitimate documented safety or security reasons. ✅ CO741.4. Know the methods of deception used by a disabled inmate to manipulate the accommodation request process for a disability determination Inmates may try to use medical conditions or disabilities to manipulate staff by requesting addi- tional health-care appliances beyond their personal needs, avoiding undesirable job assignments, or receiving unnecessary medications. Exaggerating illness or disability is difficult to prove; however, it is a common method of manipulation. Agency medical staff determines whether an inmate has a disability based on an inmate’s record of an existing physical or mental impairment or quali- fied evaluation. When denied unnecessary supplies, an inmate may go to such extremes as exag- gerating an existing disability or illness, creating frivolous lawsuits, or even self-injury to achieve desired results. Chapter 7 Supervising Special Populations / 215