Aída Martínez-Gómez
The growing numbers of imprisoned linguistic minorities around the world face multiple inequalities related to communication barriers. In fact, the language barrier has been identified as their main source of problems (Van Kalmthout et al. 2007: 17). Besides their hampered access to facilities and services, speakers with limited proficiency in the vehicular language(s) of the institution where they are being held are often disadvantaged by their lack of understanding of prisoners’ rights, the system of detention, and complaint and appeal procedures, as well as by their limited access to rehabilitation and treatment programs (Cole 2009: 109-110).
However, the legislation on foreign prisoners in different parts of the world demonstrates that protection of language rights fails to be a priority. This presentation will examine translation and interpreting policies in fifty prison systems in forty different countries, which were selected for this study based on their numbers of foreign prisoners. Their overt policy instruments (prison legislations and internal prison directives, when available) were analyzed qualitatively, following a bottom-up coding process facilitated by the software NVivo. This presentation will summarize the three-level typology of prison systems arising from that analysis. In it, prison systems are grouped according to the level of comprehensiveness of their policies. Selected examples will illustrate the policies that are representative of each category and the different types of policy instruments used to provide for language issues.
References
Cole, Andrew. 2009. A Human Rights Approach to Prison Management. London: International Centre for Prison Studies.
van Kalmthout, Anton; Femke Hofstee-van der Meulen & Frieder Dünkel (eds.) 2007. Foreigners in European Prisons. The Netherlands: Wolf Legal Publishers.