Opinion: Incarcerated people are entitled to legal services, but most prisons don't make it easy [Opinion]
When we think of the rights of incarcerated people, we often think of access to health care or safety, but there’s another essential right we overlook: the right to access legal assistance. Despite legal protections, many incarcerated people struggle to navigate the legal system on their own.
Just as pulling oneself up by one’s own bootstraps defies the laws of physics, relying solely on law libraries to provide access to justice for incarcerated people ignores the practical realities of the legal system and the needs of those who are navigating it from behind bars. This expectation is problematic for several reasons.
The population of non-native English speakers in our prisons is also disproportionately high and there is a lack of resources available to provide equal access. In many cases, legal documents are available only in English, and the limited availability of bilingual legal assistance heavily burdens non-English speaking people. Many prisons and jails do not have bilingual staff or attorneys to provide legal assistance in multiple languages.
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