Terms and Conditions (Part II)

24. Communication Plans will have information on the reading and writing skills of the person on parole or probation. DCS needs to know if: 1) a person can understand information in written English, 2) how much that person understands, and 3) when the person can understand.

25. People on parole or probation who cannot read and write in English because of their disability, will get information in another way that works for them. This way will be written down in the Communication Plan.

26. DCS will use any of the right Auxiliary Aids and Services to share written information so that Deaf or Hard of Hearing people on parole or probation who cannot read and write English will have Effective Communication the entire time they have parole or probation.

27. When DCS needs to mail or give paperwork to a person on parole or probation, DCS staff will follow the rules for Auxiliary Aids and Services written in the Communication Plan for Field Interactions. An example of paperwork are the papers about the extra rules people on parole or probation must follow on Halloween.

28. A Deaf or Hard of Hearing person on parole or probation can decide to not use an Auxiliary Aid or Service. If that happens, DCS staff will ask the person to write down on a paper called a “Supervisee Interpreter and Disability Service Refusal Form.” You can see a blank copy of this paper, called Exhibit #6, at the end of this paper.

29. If a person on parole or probation does not want to use Auxiliary Aids and Services before finishing a Communication Plan, DCS Staff must tell the ADA Coordinator right away.

30. A person on parole or probation may sometimes have to go outside of DCS for a service or program as part of the rules they must follow. DCS has to be okay with those companies, organizations, or government groups. Those companies must follow the ADA and Rehabilitation Act. They must provide Effective Communication and will not ask the person on parole or probation to pay any money for that.

31. A company, organization, or government group must agree to follow the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act for DCS to be okay to work with. DCS will check to be sure these sellers are following the ADA and Rehabilitation Act. DCS will take a seller off the list if the seller doesn’t follow the ADA and Rehabilitation Act.

32. DCS will tell all the people on parole or probation that sellers have to follow the ADA and Rehabilitation Act. If a company, organization, or government group is not following the ADA and Rehabilitation Act, then DCS staff will stop using their services. DCS must tell people on parole or probation that they can tell DCS if a company, organization or government group is not following the ADA and Rehabilitation Act. DCS will give the Communication Plan of people on parole or probation to any group that has programs or services that those people need to use as part of their parole or probation.

33. DCS staff will get training every year on the ADA and Rehabilitation Act. This training will teach DCS staff what ideas these two laws talk about. The training will also teach DCS staff what to do to follow these two laws. DCS staff will also get training on what this Agreement says.

34. The training will teach DCS staff how to use “teach back” or “restatement” to share information with Deaf or Hard of Hearing people on parole or probation. DCS and the people who filed this lawsuit will work together to put “teach back” and “restatement” into the training.

35. DCS will have all staff trained on and follow DCS’ ADA Policy. The DCS ADA Policy is at the end of this Agreement as Exhibit #7.

36. The ADA Policy will show how a Deaf or Hard of Hearing person on parole or probation can tell DCS staff that something is wrong with how DCS is giving information. The way to do this is on Exhibit #7.

37. DCS will check if information is being shared in a way that works and follows the ADA Policy. DCS must check twice a year. If DCS needs to, DCS will make changes to DCS’s ADA Policy, rules, and how they work. DCS will try to ask the Deaf or Hard of Hearing person on parole or probation if the information sharing is working. DCS will ask if the person understands the information sharing. DCS must ask from time to time.

38. If Plaintiffs think DCS is not following this Agreement, then Plaintiffs will write down what they think is wrong and give that to DCS. The steps to do this are:

• Plaintiffs’ lawyers will tell DCS or DCS’ lawyers about the problem.
• DCS will look into the problem. The DCS Staff will do that right away and cannot take more than 2 weeks to finish. If DCS needs more than 2 weeks, DCS staff must tell the Plaintiffs’ lawyers. When DCS has finished looking into the problem, DCS will have 2 more weeks to solve the problem.

• These are the steps. 1) DCS managers must talk to any DCS staff person who did not follow this Agreement and explain what this person did wrong. 2) Any DCS staff person who did not follow this Agreement must have training. 3) And any DCS staff person may also have bad changes to the staff person’s job.
• At the same time DCS is looking into the problem, DCS will fix any problem with how information was shared. DCS will do this by talking to the person again and using the appropriate Auxiliary Aids and Services to make sure Effective Communication happens.

39. There are many papers DCS will give to Plaintiffs’ lawyers. DCS will start giving those papers to Plaintiffs’ lawyers when the judge says yes to this Agreement. They will keep giving those papers for 4 years. They will give those papers to Plaintiffs’ lawyers every three months. Plaintiffs must tell the court of any problems they think are happening before the Agreement is over. If this Agreement is finished before the court can talk about the problems with Plaintiffs’ lawyers and DCS, the Agreement will not end until the judge has decided what to do about any problems. The list of papers DCS will give are:

• A list of all Deaf or Hard of Hearing people on parole or probation right now. This list must have names and the newest contact information DCS has for those people.
• Copies of all Communication Assessment Forms and Communication Plans. After the first time, DCS only needs to send new or changed Communication Assessments and Communication Plans.
• Copies of any Communication Assessment Acceptance/Refusal Form or Supervisee Interpreter and Disability Service Refusal Form. An example of these forms is at the end of this paper and is called Exhibits # 4 and 6.
• Any notes DCS wrote down about times DCS did not follow the Communication Plans. Rules for what to write down and how are in Paragraphs 11 and 13.
• Any notes in the DCS Portal computer system and a copy of the page that shows the face photo for all Deaf or Hard of Hearing people on parole or probation.
• All BodyCam videos that show any Deaf or Hard of Hearing person on parole or probation.
• Anything DCS staff share with other DCS staff about trying to bring in any Auxiliary Aids and Services. This can mean papers showing how DCS paid too.
• Copies of the papers where those companies, organizations, or government groups who work with DCS agree to follow the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act.
• Copies of papers showing DCS staff who work with Deaf or Hard of Hearing people on parole or probation have done training on the ADA Policy, rules, and how they work. Right now, DCS has training in February, March and May.

• Copies of all Communication Assessment Forms and Communication Plans. After the first time, DCS only needs to send new or changed Communication Assessments and Communication Plans.
• Copies of any Communication Assessment Acceptance/Refusal Form or Supervisee Interpreter and Disability Service Refusal Form. An example of these forms is at the end of this paper and is called Exhibits # 4 and 6.
• Any notes DCS wrote down about times DCS did not follow the Communication Plans. Rules for what to write down and how are in Paragraphs 11 and 13.

• Any notes in the DCS Portal computer system and a copy of the page that shows the face photo for all Deaf or Hard of Hearing people on parole or probation.
• All BodyCam videos that show any Deaf or Hard of Hearing person on parole or probation.
• Anything DCS staff share with other DCS staff about trying to bring in any Auxiliary Aids and Services. This can mean papers showing how DCS paid too.

• Copies of the papers where those companies, organizations, or government groups who work with DCS agree to follow the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act.
• Copies of papers showing DCS staff who work with Deaf or Hard of Hearing people on parole or probation have done training on the ADA Policy, rules, and how they work. Right now, DCS has training in February, March and May.

40. If a Deaf or Hard of Hearing person on parole or probation has trouble in getting the things this Agreement shows the person should get, that information will go to a DCS lawyer. That DCS lawyer will look into the problem. The DCS lawyer will figure out if any fixes need to happen. The DCS lawyer will have a 2-week time limit to look into the problem after first finding out about it. If the DCS lawyer needs more time, the lawyer will tell the Plaintiffs’ lawyer. When the 2 weeks to look into the problem is over, the DCS lawyer will have 2 more weeks to write down an answer to each problem the lawyer looked into. The DCS lawyer will give a copy of all of that information and work to the Plaintiffs’ lawyers.

41. After doing the steps in Paragraph 40, Plaintiffs’ lawyers might think that DCS is not following this Agreement. If that happens, Plaintiffs’ lawyers will write down how DCS is not following this Agreement. Plaintiffs’ lawyers will give a copy of that to DCS’ lawyers. Then, DCS’ lawyers have 15 workdays to write back an answer. If Plaintiffs still think DCS is not following the Agreement, then the lawyers for both sides will meet to talk about it. They will try to solve the problem together. If they still can’t solve the problem, then they can ask the court to help solve the problem. Plaintiffs will not ask the court for help unless they have tried writing it down and talking about it with DCS first.

42. If Plaintiffs think they need help from the court, they can give the court papers to ask for a couple of different things. Plaintiffs could ask the court to send a paper to DCS to make DCS tell the court why DCS thinks there is no problem. Plaintiffs could ask the court for other ways to fix the problem too. If the Plaintiffs ask the court for help, they must tell the court which part of this Agreement that they think DCS is not following.

43. DCS has agreed to pay Plaintiffs’ counsel $1,250,000. This money is for the lawyers’ work and for the money the lawyers spent working on the case. This money is also for the work and money that has to be spent watching DCS for 4 years to be sure DCS is following the Agreement. This money will be paid only if the Court thinks this Agreement is okay. When DCS pays this money, then the money part of this Agreement is done.

44. DCS has thirty days to give the money to the Plaintiffs’ lawyers after the Court says yes for the last time to this Agreement.

45. There is a federal law, called “Fed. R. Civ. P. 23.” This law tells people what to do in this kind of lawsuit. One part of that law says that both sides have to give a copy of this Agreement to the Court. Both sides also must give the Court a copy of a different paper that will be used to tell all Deaf and Hard of Hearing people on parole or probation in Georgia about this Agreement. The Court will then think about whether the Court accepts those papers as good enough

46. Both sides agree on a way to tell Deaf and Hard of Hearing people on parole or probation in Georgia about this Agreement. There are several steps:

• After the Court says this Agreement is okay, DCS has ten days to give Plaintiffs’ lawyers a list. That list will have the names of all Deaf and Hard of Hearing people on parole or probation that DCS knows about. That list will also have the newest way DCS knows to reach those people.
• Plaintiffs have written down a way to tell people who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing on parole or probation in Georgia about this Agreement. The Plaintiffs have 60 days to mail it out to all those people. Plaintiffs will also put a copy online. Plaintiffs will also have an ASL video of that same information.

47. Both sides agree that they will ask the Court together for a last time to talk with the Court and see if the Court accepts that this Agreement is good enough. Part of what the Court will check at this last meeting is if the Plaintiffs sent out the information to all the Deaf and Hard of Hearing people on parole or probation in Georgia. The Court will make sure that Plaintiffs followed Paragraph 46 of this Agreement. After Plaintiffs have finished following Paragraph 46, both sides will ask for a meeting in court before 45 days have passed. If the Court thinks everything is okay, then the Court will sign two papers. One paper will show that the Court thinks this Agreement is okay. The second paper will be the Court telling both sides to follow the Agreement.

48. This paper shows everything that both sides agreed to do. Both sides must follow this agreement. If DCS staff changes, the new staff must all follow this Agreement.

49. The Court has the power to make sure both sides follow this Agreement. The Court will keep that power for the whole time that both sides must follow this Agreement, which is at least four years.

50. This Agreement must follow federal laws. This Agreement must also follow laws from the State of Georgia. If the Court needs to think about this Agreement later, the Court must think about the same federal laws and laws from the State of Georgia to make choices about what to do.

51. Both sides will work hard to follow this Agreement. Sometimes, this Agreement has dates for when the work must be done. If the Agreement does not have a date for some work to be done, both sides will work hard to finish things as soon as they can.

52. This Agreement has many ideas that the Court can think about one at a time. When thinking about an idea from the Agreement, the Court will compare the idea with the law about that idea. When the Court thinks the idea does not match the law, the Court will tell both sides what to do instead. One idea not matching does not mean all the ideas of this Agreement do not match. Both sides will continue to follow the rest of the Agreement.

53. If both sides want to change something in this Agreement, they can write a paper together making the change.

54. The Plaintiffs asked the court to fix the problems between DCS and Deaf or Hard of Hearing on parole or probation in Georgia. The Plaintiffs agree that this Agreement covers everything they wanted to get help from the Court to solve. The Plaintiffs agree that they will not sue DCS again about the things that were solved in this Agreement, if DCS follows the Agreement. The Plaintiffs know what is in this Agreement. The Plaintiffs accept this Agreement, and no one forced them to accept it. The Plaintiffs had lawyers help them with this Agreement. Anyone who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing on parole or probation in Georgia must follow the same Agreement, too. The Plaintiffs and all the other Deaf and Hard of Hearing people on parole and probation cannot ask the Court to think about the problems in this Agreement again to talk about the same ways to fix those problems. But they might ask the Court to think about the problems in this Agreement to fix those problems a different way.

That can mean asking the Court to make DCS pay them money. It can mean asking the Court to think about other problems, but not about Effective Communication. It can mean asking the Court to think about problems with dealing with doctors for the body or the mind. If a Deaf or Hard of Hearing person on parole or probation gets in trouble again and must have a state criminal Court meeting or a meeting with DCS staff to decide if they are going back to jail or prison, they can still tell that Court about problems with Effective Communication to explain why they are in trouble. When this Agreement is over in 4 years or when both sides agree, Deaf and Hard of Hearing people on parole or probation could ask the Court to think about the same problems if they happen after this Agreement is over.

55. The Court can send this paper to both sides through email or online. If someone uses email or a fax to sign that person’s name, that is allowed. This Agreement starts on the Effective Date.