Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2019 November 2

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November 2

information sign in japanese in a californian prison near the condom machine

Hello there, I saw this video https://youtube.com/MRmwtgcm_p0 and I just cant believe what I saw. Are in the prisons of california so many japanese people locked that there is this need for such signs in japanese? If yes, how does it come? Japanese and the japanese people aren't for me really "known" as "criminals". And if this sign is necessary it has to mean, japanese is spoken by many many prisoners inside this prison. And of course, these presumed japanese prisoners want to have these condoms (thats reason 2 why I cant believe why that sign exist). We in Germany do have some information signs in arabic, kurdish and some african languages which tell you for example "do not poop in the shower" (example) because there is the necessary for it, otherwise we would not teach them any "european culture". Are japanese really criminals, are really so many japanese people living in california that there is the necessary for it? I was guessing the most japanese people do live in Hawaii and if they live there, they aren't really many in the prisons. Can you help me to understand why there is this necessary for the sign in japanese? I have a culture-shock, I never saw japanese people as criminals --46.167.62.33 (talk) 02:55, 2 November 2019 (UTC)

Wrong link. Also, the sign is in Chinese, not Japanese; there's no Kana whatsoever (as can be seen at 1:01).

There are Chinese criminal organizations. Also, there are Japanese criminal organizations.

However, it's kinda racist to say "are (ethnicity) really criminals" as if the entire group either is or isn't -- all ethnicities and cultures have criminals among them but most people are just trying to get by. And as a German, you should be extra aware of the dangers of making blanket statements about entire ethnicities. Ian.thomson (talk) 03:05, 2 November 2019 (UTC)

Worth noting that the news story clearly says 'San Francisco County Jail' rather than simply referring to it as a Californian prison. The distinction between things called jails and prisons in the US seems important here [1] and indeed the video sort of gets into it near the end, although the San Francisco County bit hints at the important part.

The jail here, is I assume one of the San Francisco County Jails ultimately run by the City and County of San Francisco. (To be clear, it's a Consolidated city-county.) As the story indicates, apparently San Francisco made condoms available in their jails a while back, before California passed a law for the same thing [2]. Which is largely an aside but indicates why they are the example that tends to show up in these stories.

The main reason all this is important is what's common in 'California' which is after all a massive state, may not be that relevant. It makes sense that San Francisco will choose what they feel is best for them unless the state or federal government stops them. San Francisco#Race, ethnicity, religion, and languages says that 19% speak a variety of Chinese at home. (More than Spanish in fact.) Demographics of San Francisco#Languages and ages has similar figures. While not Mandarin, and the article doesn't really talk about written languages, it would make sense if there's a fair few Written vernacular Chinese although more likely traditional than simplified. (While Written Cantonese is a thing, it's generally not so common especially in formal settings.) I suspect you can find stats someone if you look a bit better.

Anyway this is likely part of the reason San Francisco has a Language Access Ordinance [3] requiring that major city departments provide written translations for Spanish, Chinese and Tagalog. There may be exceptions for jails or maybe they aren't covered but it wouldn't be surprising if they were. (And I would add if the situation is unclear, printing signs is likely to be far cheaper than being hit by a lawsuit.) That sign lacks Tagalog, but that was only added recently and it sounds like full compliance was only needed by the end of 2015 [4] [5] which postdates both the article I linked and the video you did.

Assuming that the LAO does apply to jails, whether it may have been better to consider the languages specific to those incarcerated isn't really a question for the RD and I'm not convinced it would be different enough that these weren't still the top languages. See e.g. [6] which admittedly doesn't have enough specificity and ethnicity is only a loose approximator for language spoken.

Nil Einne (talk) 04:54, 2 November 2019 (UTC)

Relevant article for implied question 2: Prison sexuality#Inmate contraceptive access. -- ToE 23:19, 2 November 2019 (UTC)

California has state laws regarding language accessibility. (One example.) As a Californian, I know we always get multilingual notices with election materials, DMV stuff, legal stuff from companies, and so on. I don't know whether this has anything to do with said laws, but I wouldn't be surprised. --47.146.63.87 (talk) 04:14, 4 November 2019 (UTC)