Foreign languages in prisons

Some prisons have sought to limit inmates' abilities to communicate in foreign languages, such as send or receive correspondence in these languages, or receive printed publications in these languages. A prison, penitentiary, or correctional facility is a place in which individuals are physically confined or interned and usually deprived of a range of A foreign language is a Language not spoken by the people of a certain place for example English is a foreign language in Japan. This is often justified on the grounds that it might enable inmates to plan escapes or other crimes, or may contain material encouraging disorder in the prison, but that prison officials would not recognise them due to their inability to understand what was written or said.

Inmates and human rights activists have argued that this policy is discriminatory against minority groups who speak a different language, especially when they do not have good command of the mainstream language, and hence have difficulty communicating in it, when they wish to correspond with family members who do not speak the mainstream or national language (especially with foreign national prisoners), and where their language is an important part of their cultural or religious identity. Human rights refers to the "basic Rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled A national language is a Language (or language variant, ie Dialect) which has some connection - de facto or de jure - with (For example, Arabic is an important part of the religious identity of many Muslims, and Hebrew is an important part of the religious identity of Jews. Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language A Muslim (مسلم pronounced Muslim, not Muzlim) is an adherent of the Religion PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ )

Foreign languages in prisons in the United States

The US Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, ruled in Kikumura v. Court of Appeal, Court of Appeals, and Appellate Division redirect here for a list of specific courts using those titles see Court of Appeal Turner 28 F. 3d 592 C. A. 7(Ill). 1994. (see [1]), that a blanket refusal to permit inmates to communicate or receive publications in a language other than English is unconstitutional. However, their ruling implies that the prison may still refuse to do so, if they have made a good faith effort to translate the materials or have they reviewed by a prison official who speaks the language, and found that such translation or review is not possible or too costly. But such an investigation of possibilities of review or translation must be made on a case-by-case basis, rather than a blanket prohibition without conducting such an analysis.

Foreign languages in prisons in the United States

See also