Inmate Communications (141)

Inmate Communication
Name
Institution
Inmate Communication
Given the significant population of prisoners in the American prisons and jails, it is common to find detainees who have English as their second language and a considerable number who cannot utter, read or write a word in English. Prisoners with difficulties or completely unable to communicate in English have the same right as the rest to free speech, and they must talk in one way or the other with their families, friends and read foreign publications (Palmer, 2014). In this case, the English-Only rule needs to be amended so that the rest of the prisoners can be entitled to all the prisoner’s rights restricted by the inability to communicating in English.
A move to amend the English-only rule can be achieved by increasing the number of languages allowed in the prisoners from one to ten languages. According to Carter (2015), there are ten languages in the world that at least anyone from anywhere in the world can speak. The ten words include Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese, French, Arabic, Hindi, Spanish, and German. It is easy and possible for the government to find translators from the public who can translate the languages back to English for the rest of the inmate staff to understand and censor the messages being passed to and from the inmates. The work of the translator will be to state if the messages threaten the rehabilitation of the inmate and the security of the rest of the staff and inmate in the facility.

Also, the government has enough resources at its disposal to conduct background checks on any party participating in the conversation. In case there are any red flags, the government then should impose measures to ensure order and security is maintained.
The First Amendment is inclusive of everyone including the inmates in American jails and prisons. All prisoners have the right to freedom of speech and association. Therefore, inmates can communicate with their relatives as stipulated by the law (Palmer, 2014). However, the right comes with a responsibility to ensure that the conversation does not in any way threaten the security of the rests of the inmates and the staff and does not negatively affect their rehabilitation process. If the right to freedom of speech and association conflicts with the prison policy, then it is always up to the wardens and later the court to determine if the contents of the message being passed was a threat to any rules and regulation governing the operations in prison. When finding that the right was used against the policies set in jail, then measures to suspend the right can be used to punish the offense until it is justified that the inmate has learned the lesson and is willing not to commit the crime again.

References
Carter, R. (2015). Language and creativity: The art of common talk. Routledge.
Palmer, J. W. (2014). Constitutional rights of prisoners. Routledge.