Statement of Policy and Applicable Procedures

The ADA has a part called “Title II” that says that organizations will make what they do, the programs they have, and the services they give equally accessible to everyone. DCS agrees to follow that rule. We will give Reasonable Accommodations to people with disabilities who have parole or probation with us. If making a change would be a Fundamental Alteration or Undue Burden, then we will not make that change. (See section IV. G. of this policy for more information.)

There is a law, called 28 C.F.R. 35.106, that requires organizations to put up signs or posters telling people how to get Reasonable Accommodations. We will follow this rule by putting signs or posters up in the lobby of all our field offices and on our public website. We will be fair to people with disabilities who need to use our programs, services and activities. If someone with a disability needs to ask for a Reasonable Accommodation, they can reach out to the ADA Coordinator at:

DCS ADA Coordinator’s Office. 2 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, S.E., Suite 458, East Tower, Atlanta, Georgia 30334. ADA.request@dcs.ga.gov, 404-793-0301.

The person with a disability can ask for an Auxiliary Aid or Service to share information or for us to make a change in our programs, services, or activities that will allow that person to be included well.

We will tell everyone on parole and probation about this ADA Policy and Reasonable Accommodations during the first time we meet with them.

The ADA Coordinator for DCS is picked by the Commissioner of DCS. The ADA Coordinator works with all DCS staff to make sure we all follow the ADA rules. The ADA Coordinator learned about the laws for having access for people with disabilities. The ADA Coordinator will also work with other state groups and people who know a lot about the ADA to understand the law and figure out how we can follow the law well.

1. Some work belongs to the ADA Coordinator:

• The ADA Coordinator will work to train DCS staff on how to follow the ADA when meeting with people who have disabilities during our work. This means telling us what the ADA says, teaching us about Auxiliary Aids and Services and how to use them, and training us on problems that might happen. The ADA Coordinator will do this work with help from the DCS Training Division;
• The ADA Coordinator will keep information about any person with a disability on parole or probation, but will only keep information needed to work with the person. This information will be kept by working with the Operations and Information Technology Divisions;

• The ADA Coordinator will come up with steps for how we can provide Reasonable Accommodations quickly and fairly and how we can answer any complaints about how we do that. The ADA Coordinator will make sure that we all know about those steps and that we use them.
• The ADA Coordinator will check on any requests for Reasonable Accommodations from people with disabilities on parole or probation with us and move the requests through our system with the help of the Operations and Legal Divisions. This work is to make sure we are following the ADA Title II Requirements. (See Section IV. F. and G. of this policy for more information);

• If someone says we are not following the ADA the right way, the ADA Coordinator will look into any problem, figure out how to solve any complaints and help us with fixing any problems;
• DCS work places will get a visit from the ADA Coordinator at least once every two years to check how we are doing in following the ADA.

2. The ADA Coordinator will help DCS staff members think about the ADA in many ways. For example:

• When we are buying programs and Auxiliary Aids or Services
• When we are looking at contracts
• How to plan for getting people with disabilities out of DCS work places if there is a crisis
• What we should do if we have to tell a person with disabilities that we won’t give them requested accommodations
• How to handle when people with disabilities on parole or probation ask for accommodations
• How to handle any complaints about ADA problems

1. The first time our CSOs do intake for a person on parole or probation, we will go through a checklist to figure out if that person has a disability. If the person we are meeting with came to us from another DCS CSO, then we look at the checklist already filled out. We will look for any Reasonable Accommodations that have already been listed for the person with a disability. We will use the Auxiliary Aids and Services needed to help us go through the checklist with that person with a disability. We will share the checklist by uploading it to our Portal system. If we can’t use the Portal system to fill out the checklist, we will use paper instead.Note: we will tell the ADA Coordinator if the person with a disability asks us for any Reasonable Accommodations. We will use the Portal system to keep information about how best to share information with that person with a disability and which accommodations that person has asked for.

2. We will tell the person with a disability how to find our ADA Policy.

3. We need to figure out if there are any new problems in how we share information with a person on parole or probation that might mean a Reasonable Accommodation now needs to be used. This is true for the whole time we are working with that person.

4. CSOs will make sure the Portal system has all the information about accommodations a person with a disability asks for or if we have to tell that person we won’t give them a requested accommodation. CSOs will make sure the ADA Coordinator has the newest information about ADA things at all times.

The Department of Community Supervision (DCS) will follow the rules in the ADA Title II for people with disabilities on parole or probation.

1. Office and Field Meetings
   Doing our work well means that we must have meetings with the people we are working with and those meetings need to work well. The first time we meet with someone starting parole or probation, the CSO will tell that person several things. The CSO must tell all the rules to the person. The CSO must also give the person information about the rules everyone on parole or probation must follow for drug testing or for going out of state. The person may have more rules to follow for their parole or probation as well and the CSO will tell them all of those rules. The CSO will also share information about DCS Policy 3.129, which tells if the person on parole or probation must pay any money for our work or pay money because of the Court’s orders. We will have any needed Reasonable Accommodations when we need to share information with a person on parole or probation during meetings in our offices or out in the field.

2. Revocation Hearings
If we have problems with a person on parole or probation, we might send that person back to Court to talk about stopping our work and having that person put back in jail or prison. If the person with disability on parole or probation needs Reasonable Accommodations for our meetings, we will make sure the Court staff are aware of that need for any time that we send that person to Court to talk about any problems.

When we are working with people on parole or probation, we must share information well to do our jobs the right way and get that person to follow all the rules. We will usually give a person with a disability any needed accommodations so the person can be part of our programs, services, and activities, to be included as well as everyone else can be. Some of the Auxiliary Aids and Services we can use when working with people who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind, blind, or have speech problems are sign language interpreters who have proof of skill, printing our papers with Braille, bringing in people to take notes. There are many other Auxiliary Aids or Services that might work, too.

DCS will not force people with disabilities to use Reasonable Accommodations. If a person does not want to use Reasonable Accommodations, we will help the person with a disability fill in the Supervisee Interpreter And Disability Service Refusal Form. The steps to follow for this are:

1. Once the person with a disability has filled out the form, a sworn notary must check that the form is completely filled out and will check that the person with a disability’s name matches the form.
2. We will upload the finished form to the file of the person on parole or probation.
3. We will send a copy of the finished form to the ADA Coordinator through email. We will make sure the copy we send is not too hard to see and read.

1. Any person with a disability on parole or probation can ask for accommodations.
2. A person with a disability may ask us for accommodations through speech, gesture, sign language, writing, or any other way. Once we understand the person is asking for accommodations, we will give the person the ADA Reasonable Accommodation Request Form to fill out. If the person cannot fill it out without help, then we will help. Helping can mean we read the paper out loud, or we use one of the Auxiliary Aids and Services to share the information on the form.
3. We will send the ADA Reasonable Accommodation Request Form to the ADA Coordinator through email at: ADA.request@dcs.ga.gov.

4. The ADA Coordinator will check the ADA Reasonable Accommodation Request Form and decide if we will give that accommodation or if we might give a different accommodation. The ADA Coordinator has twenty four (24) work days to decide. The ADA Coordinator will email the officer for the person asking for Reasonable Accommodations, if more information is needed to make a decision. The officer will get that information from the person with a disability and will put that information into the Portal system.
5. When we decide if we are going to give a Reasonable Accommodation, we will also think about what the person with a disability is asking for and try to give first choice to what the person asked for. Sometimes, we might offer a different Reasonable Accommodation, but only if that works as well for sharing information as the Reasonable Accommodation the person asked for first.
6. If we don’t know what the disability is of the person and how best to share information with them because of that disability, we might ask for proof of the disability. We will not decide if we will give Reasonable Accommodations until we have proof of the disability.

7. The ADA Coordinator will email the Reasonable Accommodation decision to the officer working with the person with a disability. The officer will put the finished ADA Reasonable Accommodation Request Form into the Portal system. The ADA Coordinator will also keep a copy of the form in a file system that can be used by DCS staff with the right permissions.

8. We will tell the person with a disability on parole or probation what we have decided about the Reasonable Accommodations. We will also tell them if we need more time to make the decision and we will give a timeline for when we will make the decision.

9. Interpreter/CART Service Request Process:

• If a person on parole or probation asks us for an in-person interpreter and/or CART services, we will talk to the Chief or Assistant Chief.

• The Chief or the Assistant Chief will find the Interpreter/CART Services Request Form in the Portal and fill the form out.

• The Chief or Assistant Chief shall email the form to purchasing@dcs.ga.gov (Purchasing) and ADA.request@dcs.ga.gov (ADA Coordinator).

• Purchasing will pick a staff person who works on buying things and services to work on getting the interpreting or CART services.

• The Purchasing staff person will tell the Chief or Assistant Chief who emailed the form when the services have been found or will tell them if there have been any problems with getting the services.

1. If persons with a disability on parole or probation thinks that they are not getting the right Reasonable Accommodations for meetings with us, they have the right to tell the ADA Coordinator about the problems they think they are having.
2. The way for persons with a disability on parole or probation to tell the ADA Coordinator about any problems they think they’re having with Reasonable Accommodations is for them to put that information into our form called the ADA Formal Complaint Form Version 1. They can fax or mail that form to the ADA Coordinator. The fax number and mailing address are printed on the form.

3. We will have Auxiliary Aids and Services for persons with a disability who need those to fill out the ADA Formal Complaint Form Version 1. We will also have Auxiliary Aids and Services to help the persons understand the steps for telling the ADA Coordinator about any problems they think they’re having with Reasonable Accommodations. We can look at the Communication Plans of deaf or hard of hearing people on parole or probation to figure out which Auxiliary Aids or Services to use with them. We can look at the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Guidelines to learn more about Communication Plans. People who use sign language can choose to send a video to the ADA Coordinator telling about the problems they think they are having with Reasonable Accommodations.

4. The ADA Coordinator has two (2) work days after getting the form or video from a person with a disability on parole or probation to tell that person that the ADA Coordinator has the form or video.
5. The ADA Coordinator will check into any problems the person with a disability on parole or probation thinks are happening. The ADA Coordinator has thirty (30) work days to gather information about any problems and tell the person that information. They can email or send a letter to the person. The person with disabilities on parole or probation can ask the ADA Coordinator for more information about the information or if there are more questions.

1. If the person with a disability on parole or probation thinks the decision about the problems was wrong, the person can give a paper to the HR Director and ask for the HR Director to check on the decision. The person has fifteen (15) days after the decision to give the HR Director the paper. The person can reach out to the HR Director at:2 MLK Drive, S.E., Atlanta, Georgia, 30334.
   hrdirector@dcs.ga.gov.The paper should tell the HR Director why the decision was wrong.
2. The HR Director has ten (10) days to tell the person that the HR Director got the information.

3. The HR Director has thirty (30) days to write back to the person who sent in the paper asking the HR Director to check on the decision. The HR Director will tell the person if the decision will stay the same or change in some way. The HR Director will tell the person if more time is needed to make a decision.

4. We will have Auxiliary Aids and Services for the person with a disability who needs those to write the paper asking the HR Director to check on the decision. We will also have Auxiliary Aids and Services so the person can understand the steps in asking the HR Director to check on the decision. We can look at the Communication Plans of deaf or hard of hearing people on parole or probation to figure out which Auxiliary Aids or Services to use with them. We can look at the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Guidelines to learn more about Communication Plans. People who use sign language can choose to send a video to the ADA Coordinator instead.

There are many services that people with disabilities can use to share information with us when we are not together in person. These are free services that are given by other organizations and can give other ways for people with disabilities on parole and probation to share information with us or get information from us.

1. Georgia Relay - Georgia Relay is a FREE service for anyone that is run by the State of Georgia. This is a phone service to make calls easy and accessible for everyone, including people who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind or have speaking disabilities. People can use Georgia Relay 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Georgia Relay has several services for people to use to connect with people using different types of phone systems. Georgia Relay has the kind of relay services that have been around for decades and Captioned Telephone services. You can make a call through Georgia Relay by dialing the following numbers:To make a Relay CallDial 7-1-1 or call one of the toll free numbers below
   TTY: 800-255-0056
   Voice: 800-255-0135
   Speech to speech: 888-202-4082
   Spanish to Spanish: 888-202-3972
   (has both Spanish-to-Spanish and translation from English to Spanish)

2. Services offered by Georgia Relay:

• TTY (Text Telephone) - Allows a person who is deaf or hard of hearing to type messages and read the other person’s responses.

1. VCO (Voice Carry Over) - Using a TTY (Text Telephone) and regular telephone or a telephone that also has a text screen, a person uses their own voice over the phone line. A Georgia Relay Communications Assistant (CA) will type the words of the person being called and the VCO user reads those words on the phone’s text screen.

• HCO (Hearing Carry Over) - This service allows the person using HCO to type messages, using a TTY or similar device, and the Communications Assistant (CA) voices the typed words to the other person. When the other person speaks, the HCO user listens directly to what is being said.
• Speech to Speech (STS) - Designed for people who have mild-to-moderate speech difficulties who can hear what is being said over the phone. The STS user speaks and a specially trained Communications Assistant (CA) listens to the words. The CA then revoices those words to the other person. When the other person speaks, the STS user listens directly to what is being said.

• Captioned Telephone (CapTel) – A person using a CapTel phone speaks directly to the other person, and when the other person speaks back, the CapTel user can listen and read what is said at the same time. During the conversation, a person with special training working at CapTel uses voice recognition software to take everything the other person says and makes captioned text.
• Deaf-Blind Service (DBS) – People who use the DBS type messages and read the other person’s responses, typed by the Communications Assistant (CA), on a Braille display.
• Voice Users – This service is for people to call anyone who is deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind or has a speech disability.

• Video Relay Services (VRS) – People can use this service to make calls between people who use voice only phones and people who use videophones. Interpreters or other Communication Assistants (CA) will work between people using voice only phones and deaf or hard of hearing people or people with speech disabilities.
• Georgia Relay has other services as well for people with disabilities to use.