The Sentencing Project announced that the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division uncovered evidence that the North Carolina court system “routinely discriminates against those who do not speak English…” According to the USDJ report:
Non-English speakers in NC receive harsher penalties and longer sentences
Investigators found instances in which prosecutors sometimes translated the
statements for the court of the very defendants they were prosecuting.
A defense lawyer reported that a man was held on a domestic violence charge for weeks without a proper hearing because no translator could be found.
The Sentencing Project reports that the North Carolina’s Administrative Office of the Courts is aware of the urgent need for interpreters, and has requested them, in spite of funding cuts at that agency.
The Justice Department has given NC a deadline of March 29, 2012 to reply to an offer to negotiate a settlement.
Sources: The Sentencing Project and The ACLU
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