Prisoners with developmental disabilities face unique challenges. One facility is offering solutions

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. On a nearby door painted deep blue, a bright yellow Minion character offers “Ways to say hello,” lists of suggestions about how prisoners incarcerated in a segregated unit of Pennsylvania’s State Correctional Institution at Albion can best greet each other. In a regular prison setting, many of these prisoners with autism and similar disabilities “would normally have kind of gotten through their incarceration just quietly," said Soliwoda, who is also program manager at Albion. “I don’t think there are enough accommodations provided in our jails and prisons for all kinds of disabilities,” said Leigh Anne McKingsley, senior director of Disability and Justice Initiatives at The Arc, a nonprofit organization serving people with intellectual and developmental limitations. In Indiana, where there isn’t a specialized developmental disability unit, Nick Stellema, the state's Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator, has helped corrections staff with tools to communicate with nonverbal autistic prisoners.