Ortiz v. Fort Dodge Correctional Facility.

• Position: Prisoner challenges a policy which prohibits him from writing letters to family members in Spanish - Brief Article

U.S. Appeals Court

LANGUAGE

Ortiz v. Fort Dodge Correctional Facility, 368 F.3d 1024 (8th Cir. 2004). A state prisoner sued a prison and a unit manager, challenging a policy that prohibited him from writing letters to family members in Spanish. The district court entered judgment in favor of the prison and the unit manager, and the inmate appealed. The appeals court affirmed, holding that the policy was reasonably related to the state's interest in preventing prisoners from using a language officials could not decipher to plan an escape or...