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Utah prison drops ‘English-only’ rule during visits to inmates
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Corrections » Changes relax the rules regulating visits to Utah inmates.
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<p class="">By brooke adams</p>
<p class=""> | The Salt Lake Tribune</p><div class=""> </div>First Published Jul 10 2013 01:01 am • Last Updated Jul 10 2013 06:21 pm
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<p class="">For the first time in its history, the
Utah Department of Corrections will allow prison inmates to converse
with visitors in languages other than English.</p>
<p class=""> The policy change is among <a href="http://corrections.utah.gov/index.php/prisons-visitation.html" target="_blank">significant revisions to the prison’s general visitation policy</a>
set to take effect on August 1, modifications largely aimed at getting
rid of rules based on outdated and overly broad gender stereotypes.</p>
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<span style="height:20px;width:71px"></span> <span class=""><span class="" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(0,0,0);display:inline-block"><span><span style="background-image:url("http://w.sharethis.com/images/pinterest_counter.png")" class=""></span></span></span></span>—
<p class=""> Rules at state prisons run gamut </p>
<p class=""> » New York State allows up to six hour visits, 365 days a year, in its maximum security units </p>
<p class=""> » North Carolina allows only one visit per week for up to two hours in maximum security </p>
<p class=""> » California does not limit the number of approved visitors an inmate may place on his or her list </p>
<p class=""> » Pennsylvania allows inmates to have 40 people on a visitation list </p>
<p class=""> » South Dakota allows only two visitors plus immediate family </p>
<p class=""> » Tennessee requires visitors to wait one year between being removed from one inmate’s list and added to that of another </p>
<p class=""> » Utah requires all visitors to reapply every year for approval </p>
<p class=""> » Oklahoma prohibits married inmates from receiving visits from friends of the opposite gender </p>
<p class=""> » New Hampshire prohibits all toys from visiting rooms </p>
<p class=""> Source: Prison Visitation Policies: A
Fifty State Survey by Chesa Boudin, Trevor Stutz and Aaron Littman of
Yale Law School, November 2012, available at <a href="http://ssrn.com/abstract=2171412" target="_blank">http://ssrn.com/abstract=2171412</a> </p>
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<p class="">One change will allow individuals to be on more
than one inmate’s approved visitation list, a rule that required, for
example, parents who had two children in prison to seek special approval
to visit both. Visitors who are non-immediate family members and want
to visit an inmate of the opposite sex will no longer have to be
accompanied by their spouse, the inmate’s spouse or the inmate’s parents
— a requirement that often proved a logistical hardship.</p>
<p class="">The prison also will allow unmarried inmates to
have more than one unmarried person of the opposite gender who is not
an immediate family member on his or her approved visitor list. That
rule was initially designed to quell complications — and potential
violence — when an inmate had more than one ongoing relationship with a
significant other. But in practice, the rule kept friends, foster
parents and all sorts of other people from visiting individuals serving
sentences at state prisons in Draper and Gunnison.</p>
<p class="">Utah appears to be the only state in the nation with an English-only rule, <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2171412" target="_blank">according to research conducted last year by three Yale Law School students</a>.
Signs at public entrances and in visiting rooms at the prison alerted
visitors that all conversations with inmates were to be conducted only
in English. If another language was used during a visit, officers would
interrupt the conversation and ask participants to speak English or even
end the visit.</p>
<p class="">John Mejia, legal director for the ACLU of
Utah, said the organization received numerous complaints about the
policy from inmates and their family members — particularly mothers who
wanted to speak to their sons or daughters in their native language.</p>
<p class="">"That was very concerning to us," Mejia said.
"We didn’t see any strong penological need to have such a rule and we
were also concerned that it might put the prison out of compliance with
federal rules regarding accommodations for people who speak a foreign
language. The prison walls don’t cut you off from our Constitution."</p>
<p class="">A breakdown of languages spoken by state prison
inmates was not available, but department data shows that about 19
percent of the current inmate population is Hispanic.</p>
<p class="">Corrections spokesman Steve Gehrke said that
the English-only policy was initially adopted as a safety measure to
ensure officers who monitor visits could understand conversations
between inmates and visitors. Executive Director Rollin Cook, who took
over the top post in April, decided to change the policy after hearing
concerns about it from the ACLU and discussing it with staff.</p>
<p class="">Cook said the change strikes a "better balance
between the institution’s security interests and the public’s free
speech rights."</p><p class=""><a href="http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/56572505-78/prison-inmates-policy-rule.html.csp">http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/56572505-78/prison-inmates-policy-rule.html.csp</a><br></p>
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