Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility guidelines for buildings and facilities; play areas. Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board. Final rule

The Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (Access Board) is issuing final accessibility guidelines to serve as the basis for standards to be adopted by the Department of Justice for new construction and alterations of play areas covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The guidelines include scoping and technical provisions for ground level and elevated play components, accessible routes, ramps and transfer systems, ground surfaces, and soft contained play structures. The guidelines will ensure that newly constructed and altered play areas meet the requirements of the ADA and are readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities. The Department of Justice must adopt the guidelines as standards for them to be enforceable under the ADA.     

Nondiscrimination on the basis of disability by public accommodations and in commercial facilities--Department of Justice. Final rule

This rule implements title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Public Law 101-336, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability by private entities in places of public accommodation, requires that all new places of public accommodation and commercial facilities be designed and constructed so as to be readily accessible to and usable by persons with disabilities, and requires that examinations or courses related to licensing or certification for professional and trade purposes be accessible to persons with disabilities.     

Nondiscrimination on the basis of disability by public accommodations and in commercial facilities; Americans With Disabilities Act accessibility guidelines for buildings and facilities--Department of Justice. Final rule: technical amendment

This document contains technical amendments to the regulations on nondiscrimination on the basis of disability by public accommodations and in commercial facilities, which implement title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and to appendix A to those regulations. This final rule makes some technical corrections to the regulations and amends the regulations to reference an Office and Management and Budget control number in compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980, as amended.     

Minimum guidelines and requirements for accessible design--Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board. Proposed rule

The Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board proposes to rescind the minimum guidelines and requirements for standards for accessibility and usability of federal and federally-funded buildings and facilities by physically handicapped persons, adopted on January 6, 1981. The Board seeks public comments on which parts of the January 6 rule should be retained, which parts should be deleted, and which should be modified to formulate alternative ways for the Board to carry out its responsibility to establish such guidelines and requirements.     

Managing medical staff disability issues: liability of private hospitals under ADA Titles I and III

This Article examines the extent to which private hospital are liable for discrimination against medical staff members with disabilities, under the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"). Specifically, the discussion focuses on the ways in which Title I, covering employment relationships, and Title III, covering places of public accommodation, apply to hospitals and their medical staff physicians. With respect to Title I, the author focuses on possible liability with respect to independent contractor physicians who have staff privileges at a hospital. The focus with respect to Title III involves claims filed by physicians against hospitals as places of public accommodation. The author concludes that the courts have applied the ADA in a manner broader than intended by Congress, and that private hospitals should assume that both Title I and Title III are applicable to staff privilege decisions. Therefore, any action that adversely affects a disabled physician should be supported by well-documented, objective evidence of a nondiscriminatory reason for that action.     

Minimum guidelines and requirements for accessible design--Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board. Final rule

The Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board hereby revises its "Minimum Guidelines and Requirements for Accessible Design" (guidelines and requirements). These revisions respond to concerns registered by certain Board members and to issues raised in comments submitted during the rulemaking process. The purpose of the revisions is to make the guidelines and requirements more cost effective and consistent with Federal and nationally recognized standards while still providing ready access and use. The guidelines and requirements, as revised, will provide a basis for consistent and improved accessibility standards to be issued under the Architectural Barriers Act by the General Services Administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Defense, and the United States Postal Service. For clarity, the guidelines and requirements are published in their entirety with the revisions incorporated.     

National standards to prevent, detect, and respond to prison rape. Final rule; request for comment on specific issue

The Department of Justice (Department) is issuing a final rule adopting national standards to prevent, detect, and respond to prison rape, as required by the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA). In addition, the Department is requesting comment on one issue relating to staffing in juvenile facilities. Further discussion of the final rule is found in the Executive Summary.     

Information Accessibility for Public Health Emergencies-A Case Study of Information Accessibility during the New Coronavirus Outbreak

Barrier-free information construction has not been included in the information disclosure system for public emergencies in China. This makes it difficult for obstacle groups to obtain government information timely. By contrast, social forces, sign language videos and online accessible mini programs all give quick responds, which to some extent, bridge the information gap during the pandemic. This phenomenon is caused by the insufficient construction of information accessibility within the legal system, and the lack of popularization of accessibility concepts. The corresponding departments should improve the legal system of information accessibility by incorporating it into the information disclosure system for public emergencies in China. This will speed up the construction of modern public cultural service systems, promote the development of TV sign language hosting, and improve awareness of accessibility in science and technology to promote the design standards and principles of network accessibility and improve the dissemination of barrier-free information, hence meeting the information needs of barrier-free groups for major public emergencies.     

Services and treatment for disabled infants; interim model guidelines for health care providers to establish infant care review committees--HHS. Notice of opportunity to comment

These are interim model guidelines to encourage the establishment within health care facilities, especially facilities with tertiary level neonatal care units, of committees for the purposes of educating hospital personnel and families of disabled infants with life-threatening conditions, recommending institutional policies and guidelines concerning the withholding of medically indicated treatment (including appropriate nutrition, hydration, and medication) from such infants, and offering counsel and review in cases involving disabled infants with life-threatening conditions. The publication of these interim model guidelines for public comment is required by section 124(b) of the Child Abuse Amendments of 1984, Pub. L. 98-457.     

Health Care Financing Administration: adoption of the National Bureau of Standards fire safety evaluation system for health care facilities. Notice of comment period

The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare is proposing to extend use of the new Fire Safety Evaluation System (FSES) to all hospitals participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. We are seeking public comment on this proposal and on whether to apply the FSES to intermediate care and skilled nursing facilities. The Fire Safety Evaluation System (FSES) was designed by the National Bureau of Standards. It defines the combinations of widely accepted fire safety systems and structural arrangements which can be used by health care facilities to meet safety standards equal to or exceeding those in the Life Safety Code. The FSES provides a framework which guarantees that the high standards of fire safety necessary to protect patients will be met and which is flexible enough to allow for new advances in safety technology and practice. It is based on our experience, which clearly demonstrates that the Life Safety Code can be implemented more effectively and without waste if certain changes are made in the procedures for achieving these mandated levels of safety.     

Standards of performance for new stationary sources and emission guidelines for existing sources: hospital/medical/infectious waste incinerators--EPA. Final rule

This action promulgates new source performance standards (NSPS or standards) and emission guidelines (EG or guidelines) to reduce air emissions from hospital/medical/infectious waste incinerator(s) (HMIWI) by adding subpart Ec, standards of performance for new HMIWI, and subpart Ce, emission guidelines for existing HMIWI, to 40 CFR part 60. The standards and guidelines implement sections 111 and 129 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) as amended in 1990. The standards and guidelines apply to units whose primary purpose is the combustion of hospital waste and/or medical/infectious waste. Sources are required to achieve emission levels reflecting the maximum degree of reduction in emissions of air pollutants that the Administrator has determined is achievable, taking into consideration the cost of achieving such emission reduction, any nonair-quality health and environmental impacts, and energy requirements. The promulgated standards and guidelines establish emission limits for particulate matter (PM), opacity, sulfur dioxide (SO2), hydrogen chloride (HCl), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), dioxins and dibenzofurans (dioxins/ furans), and fugitive ash emissions. Some of the pollutants being regulated are considered to be carcinogens and at sufficient concentrations can cause toxic effects following exposure. The standards and guidelines also establish requirements for HMIWI operator training/qualification, waste management plans, and testing/monitoring of pollutants and operating parameters. Additionally, the guidelines for existing HMIWI contain equipment inspection requirements and the standards for new HMIWI include sitting requirements.     

Health Care Financing Administration--Adoption of the National Bureau of Standards fire safety evaluation system for health care facilities. Final notice

The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare proposed extending the new Fire Safety Evaluation sSystem (FSES) to all hospitals participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs in a Notice of comment period publishedon June 28, 1979 in the Federal Register (44 FR 37818). The Department also sought public comment on whether to apply the FSES to skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and intermediate care facilities (ICFs) in this same Notice. After a careful review and analysis of the public comments received, the Department has decided to adopt the FSES as a means of evaluating alternative arrangements used to achieve compliance with the provisions of the Life Safety Code for hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and intermediate care facilities participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.     

Democratic Governance,Self-Fulfillment and Disability: Web Accessibility Under the Americans With Disabilities Act and the First Amendment

The Americans with Disabilities Act celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2015. Enacted by Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush, the ADA was designed to ensure that people with disabilities are given “independence, freedom of choice, control of their lives, the opportunity to blend fully and equally into the rich mosaic of the American mainstream.” The ADA defines the kinds of public and private spaces that must provide access and accommodations to the disabled. Missing from that list, because of the ADA's timing, is the Internet, effectively shutting the disabled out of the rich marketplace of ideas online. This article examines both the case law surrounding this omission and delays by the executive and legislative branches in extending the ADA to the Internet. It argues that making the Internet a “place of public accommodation” under the ADA is supported by First Amendment principles of democratic governance and self-fulfillment.     

Between Disability and Terror: Handicapped Parking Space and Homeland Security at Fenway Park

In the United States, handicapped parking spaces tether the social construction of need to the legal assurance of equality of accessibility. However in places such as Fenway Park in Boston, the threat of terror distorts the intention of these spaces by politically reconfiguring their presence and meaning. As a result, our public interest is legally manipulated and socially challenged to preference the abstraction of threat over real life in even the most ordinary of places. This paper was originally written for an Independent Study with Laura Jensen, Political Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and entitled “Categories of Legitimacy” and presented at the New England Political Science Association Meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, May 5, 2006. A later draft was presented at the International Roundtable for the Semiotics of Law at the Universite du Littoral, Bolougne sur Mer, France, May 22, 2006. Many many thanks are due Laura Jensen and John Brigham for their encouragement, continued enthusiasm and support. Much appreciation is also due the Department of Political Science, UMass/Amherst, for their engagement and suggestions offered at the Fall 2006 Colloquium series and to Kate Longley and Maria Koinova for their generous ideas for revision.     

An Analysis of CRIPA Findings Letters Issued to Jails for Constitutional Violations by the Department of Justice

This study analyzes Findings Letters in jail Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA) cases for the years 1993 through 2013 to improve our understanding of the prevalence, content and correlates of constitutional violations investigated by the Department of Justice. CRIPA authorizes the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and file suit against local jail facilities for the unconstitutional conditions of individuals in their care. Investigating the allegations and providing local officials a Findings Letter are the first steps in a CRIPA action and determine what remedial action must be taken to avoid a federal lawsuit. The analysis revealed a high incidence of certain constitutional violations, longitudinal trends, and facility characteristics associated with CRIPA action.     

THE LANGUAGE OF STIGMATIZATION AND THE MARK OF VIOLENCE: EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE ON THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION AND USE OF CRIMINAL RECORD STIGMA

After years of stagnation, labeling theory has recently gained new empirical support. Simultaneously, new policy initiatives have attempted to restructure criminal record stigma to reduce reintegration barriers, and subsequent recidivism, driven by labeling. For example, in a recent Department of Justice (DOJ) language policy, person‐first terms (e.g., “person with a conviction”) were substituted for crime‐first terms (e.g., “offender”). The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has also issued guidelines to structure how decision‐makers use criminal records. Unfortunately, little is currently known about the social construction and use of criminal record stigma or the potential effects of such policy changes. In the current study, we provide two unique empirical tests. In study 1, we examine the social construction of stigma by testing DOJ's language policy with experimental data from a nationally representative sample of American adults (N = 996). In study 2, we use a separate nationwide experiment (N = 1,540) to examine how the contextualization of criminal records influences social exclusion decisions. Across both studies, we find consistent evidence of a “mark of violence.” The public perceives that individuals with violent convictions are the most likely to commit future crimes, and it is more supportive of excluding these individuals from employment. Crime‐first terms exacerbate perceived recidivism risk for individuals with violent convictions.     

National guidelines for health planning; rescission of computed tomographic scanner standards--Public Health Service. Final rule

This document removes from regulations Federal standards for computed tomographic (CT) scanners with respect to the appropriate supply, distribution and organization of health resources. Based on concerns discussed in the notice of proposed rulemaking published on May 20, 1982, and subsequent comments, the Secretary has decided the standards are too rigid and inflexible, and that they to not take into account recent advances in the state-of-the-art in scanning technology. This action gives states and local communities the fullest possible discretion and flexibility in the review and planning for expenditures related to this technology. The Department is making non-regulatory technical information materials concerning CT scanners available to the public.     

美国企业犯罪的审前转处协议研究

美国针对企业犯罪建立了特殊的审前转处程序,办案检察官可以与涉罪企业签署暂缓起诉协议和不起诉协议,如果企业能够在考察期限内完成协议下的义务,则不会被审判和定罪。在美国经济危机时期,该制度较好地为企业的生存和社会公共利益的维护提供了保障。该制度以美国司法部内部的政策性文件为依据,赋予了办案检察官较大的自由裁量权,法院基本无权干预。美国理论界的争论主要围绕三对冲突关系:社会公共利益维护与企业“大到不用判刑”特权的冲突、检察官的转处裁量权与程序正义的冲突、司法部内部行为与立法/司法管辖权的冲突。在我国面临企业犯罪处理困境的当下,该制度及其相关理论能够为我国“司法行政部门帮扶企业”政策的践行提供经验借鉴。     

Youth justice — crisis or opportunity?

Conclusion Throughout the 1980s, major developments took place in the way in which agencies, which constituted the juvenile justice system, worked together. The 1990s have seen an increase in public and political attention on law and order. As yet, neither this concern, nor the introduction of the Criminal Justice Act 1991, has reversed the general trend of diverting young offenders from court and custody. Moreover, in the first three years of the decade, there have been no indications that concern about crime has generated an upturn in prosecution of youthful offenders.New proposals to expand secure accommodation within both the local authority and the independent sector, put forward by the Department of Health, and the proposed introduction of secure training centres in the new Criminal Justice Bill, indicate political responses to perceived public concern, rather than planned responses to identified need. In the light of these developments, it is important that local youth justice agencies operate a process of inter-agency strategic management based on sound, valid and agreed data. It is important that in the rush to assuage public concern, sound management of the youth justice system, as well as sound management of individual youth offenders, is not jettisoned.This is the message and legacy of the career of Josine Junger-Tas who has taught many of us that youth crime is open to rational analysis and policy making. Her intellectual analysis, tempered with her effervescent personality, is an example to us all.     

Implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act in State Police and Highway Patrol Agencies: Results of a National Survey

This article provides an empirical analysis of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) implementation within the law enforcement profession. Specifically, the study reports results from a national survey of state police/highway patrol agencies regarding practical implementation of the ADA. The data is analyzed in terms of population size and collective bargaining status. Results of this endeavor indicate that implementation of the ADA within law enforcement is difficult, especially as applied to the work of sworn personnel. These challenges are somewhat diminished when applied to non-sworn personnel such as dispatchers, administrators, and clerical personnel. The most substantial obstacles to implementation of the ADA within law enforcement is not associated with political officials or administrators. Instead, most arise from the lack of training and vague legislative language and regulatory standards. Smaller states and those without collective bargaining report lower levels of accommodation; however, there are few statistically significant differences in terms of population and collective bargaining.