Deaf and blind prison inmate charged with possessing cellphone
Jarratt, VA Aug 14 2018
An inmate who is deaf and legally blind said state prison officials want to move him from Greensville Correctional Center to a higher-security facility because a cellphone was found in his prison cell.
“When they searched the room, they found it in the toilet, but it wasn’t mine. … I don’t know who it belongs to,” said Louis Pino, 40, speaking through a sign language interpreter last week. “I’m deaf and I’m blind. I can’t even use a phone.”
Pino said that because of the incident, the department wants to move him from Greensville, a relatively low-security facility, to either the Sussex I state prison or the Sussex II facility.
The Virginia Department of Corrections said last week that it could not comment on an offender’s private prison record, contraband-related allegations or inmate movement. However, a copy of the DOC’s disciplinary offense report was made available to the Richmond Times-Dispatch by Pino’s mother, Ruth Martin, of Virginia Beach.
According to the report, at 3:44 p.m. last Oct. 6, a “black, posh cellular phone” was found in Pino’s cell. An officer wrote, “When I looked in the toilet there was a blue plastic [item] in the back of the toilet. I got the blue material out and I discovered it was a blue plastic ruler used as an anchor for a cellphone in a glove.”
“Offender Pino was the only offender assigned to the cell,” the officer wrote. An officer said that when asked if the phone was his, Pino did not respond, although an interpreter was present.
Martin said it was a flip phone, not a smartphone, and that there was no way her son could make use of it. Pino denied keeping it for someone else.
The report indicates that Pino was found guilty by the hearing officer of possession or use of an unauthorized communications device and that he was fined $7. Pino said he was not present in the cell when it was searched and that an interpreter was not present when he was questioned.
Pino and Martin said that because he was found to have a cellphone, his security level was increased from a Level 2 to Level 4, prompting a pending transfer to one of the higher-security Sussex state prisons where he fears he will not receive required services for the deaf.
A Department of Corrections spokesman said no offender would be sent to a facility that does not have appropriate services for the offender.
Pino also said the department wants to place him in a program that treats mental disabilities, which he does not have.
“They’re trying to transfer me to a Level 5 prison with no communication. … I won’t have all the services that I need at that prison,” he said.
Not commenting specifically on Pino, Lisa Kinney, spokeswoman for the DOC, said Greensville is equipped for deaf offenders and that Sussex II State prison is being equipped.
No deaf inmates will be transferred to Sussex II until the equipment is in place, she said.
