Poll: Would you translate prisoners' phone calls if they had no right to privacy?
Autor vlákna: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
PRACOVNÍK SERVERU
Jan 22, 2024

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Would you translate prisoners' phone calls if they had no right to privacy?".

This poll was originally submitted by Marco Ramón. View the poll results »



 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugalsko
Local time: 04:14
Člen (2007)
angličtina -> portugalština
+ ...
No Jan 22, 2024

As I am in the final stage of my career, I only translate what I have specialized in and I enjoy…

The Shredder
Angie Garbarino
 
@Marco Jan 22, 2024

Perhaps Marco could elaborate on why this poses an ethical dilemma.

Becca Resnik
 
IrinaN (X)
IrinaN (X)
Spojené státy americké
Local time: 22:14
angličtina -> ruština
+ ...
+1 Jan 22, 2024

Christopher Schröder wrote:

Perhaps Marco could elaborate on why this poses an ethical dilemma.


What you may not realize, however, is that those phone calls may be recorded—and what you say in those phone calls could ultimately be used as evidence against you. In California, so-called "jailhouse phone calls" are indeed recorded.

While counties handle incoming and outgoing calls from jail inmates differently, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice publicly advises all participants in phone calls with prisoners that they may monitor and record all phone calls.


Elizabeth Joy Pitt de Morales
Liviu-Lee Roth
 
Arne Krueger (X)
Arne Krueger (X)
Německo
Local time: 05:14
němčina -> angličtina
+ ...
Your life is being recorded... Jan 22, 2024

IrinaN wrote:

Christopher Schröder wrote:

Perhaps Marco could elaborate on why this poses an ethical dilemma.


What you may not realize, however, is that those phone calls may be recorded—and what you say in those phone calls could ultimately be used as evidence against you. In California, so-called "jailhouse phone calls" are indeed recorded.

While counties handle incoming and outgoing calls from jail inmates differently, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice publicly advises all participants in phone calls with prisoners that they may monitor and record all phone calls.



And I always thought it is the land of the free. ^^


 
Liviu-Lee Roth
Liviu-Lee Roth
Spojené státy americké
Local time: 23:14
rumunština -> angličtina
+ ...
Irina is right Jan 23, 2024

IrinaN wrote:

Christopher Schröder wrote:

Perhaps Marco could elaborate on why this poses an ethical dilemma.


What you may not realize, however, is that those phone calls may be recorded—and what you say in those phone calls could ultimately be used as evidence against you. In California, so-called "jailhouse phone calls" are indeed recorded.

While counties handle incoming and outgoing calls from jail inmates differently, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice publicly advises all participants in phone calls with prisoners that they may monitor and record all phone calls.




All jailhouse phone calls are recorded, but . . . if the inmate calls his lawyer, it is illegal to listen/translate the call. Before the any call is connected, the participants are informed that the call is being recorded.
I do not see any ethical problem. I remember a federal case where the AUSA handed me over a thousand minutes of recordings and instructed me not to listen to any attorney-client conversation. In many cases, these recordings are helpful to identify other perpetrators or to locate evidence. Why should a translator sweat over a non-existent dilemma; it is not the translator who commited the crime.
Lee


The Shredder
Becca Resnik
Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei
IrinaN (X)
Angie Garbarino
 
Nicholas Boline
Nicholas Boline  Identity Verified
Spojené státy americké
Local time: 22:14
Člen (2023)
španělština -> angličtina
Surveillance Jan 23, 2024

Arne Krueger wrote:

IrinaN wrote:

Christopher Schröder wrote:

Perhaps Marco could elaborate on why this poses an ethical dilemma.


What you may not realize, however, is that those phone calls may be recorded—and what you say in those phone calls could ultimately be used as evidence against you. In California, so-called "jailhouse phone calls" are indeed recorded.

While counties handle incoming and outgoing calls from jail inmates differently, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice publicly advises all participants in phone calls with prisoners that they may monitor and record all phone calls.



And I always thought it is the land of the free. ^^


Well, I'm pretty sure prisoners' phone calls are not the only ones to which the authorities have access.


Josephine Cassar
tabor
Becca Resnik
Tom in London
Liviu-Lee Roth
 
Arne Krueger (X)
Arne Krueger (X)
Německo
Local time: 05:14
němčina -> angličtina
+ ...
That is... Jan 23, 2024

Nicholas Boline wrote:

Arne Krueger wrote:

IrinaN wrote:

Christopher Schröder wrote:

Perhaps Marco could elaborate on why this poses an ethical dilemma.


What you may not realize, however, is that those phone calls may be recorded—and what you say in those phone calls could ultimately be used as evidence against you. In California, so-called "jailhouse phone calls" are indeed recorded.

While counties handle incoming and outgoing calls from jail inmates differently, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice publicly advises all participants in phone calls with prisoners that they may monitor and record all phone calls.



And I always thought it is the land of the free. ^^


Well, I'm pretty sure prisoners' phone calls are not the only ones to which the authorities have access.


...what I meant. Constitution? Only for those who constituted it...


 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
Francie
Local time: 05:14
francouzština -> angličtina
. Jan 23, 2024

Nicholas Boline wrote:


Well, I'm pretty sure prisoners' phone calls are not the only ones to which the authorities have access.


Of course not. A woman I knew worked as a sworn translator here in Paris. She was asked to translate some tapped phone calls by the police.
She realised at one point that some conversations involved a friend of hers (small community!) and promptly told him to watch what he said. She could have lost her sworn translator status over that, but the authorities never found out. I mean, even if she'd been silly enough to have told him about it over the phone, they would have had to ask her to translate it so...


tabor
Becca Resnik
 
Arne Krueger (X)
Arne Krueger (X)
Německo
Local time: 05:14
němčina -> angličtina
+ ...
But... Jan 23, 2024

Kay Denney wrote:

Nicholas Boline wrote:


Well, I'm pretty sure prisoners' phone calls are not the only ones to which the authorities have access.


Of course not. A woman I knew worked as a sworn translator here in Paris. She was asked to translate some tapped phone calls by the police.
She realised at one point that some conversations involved a friend of hers (small community!) and promptly told him to watch what he said. She could have lost her sworn translator status over that, but the authorities never found out. I mean, even if she'd been silly enough to have told him about it over the phone, they would have had to ask her to translate it so...


...I don't quite get that. Did she want to make him aware of his phone being tapped or was she advising him to withhold information?! Sounds like that woman knew way too much... But funny, that's life, I guess!


 
Daryo
Daryo
Local time: 04:14
srbština -> angličtina
+ ...
@ Marco Ramón: What's your point? Jan 24, 2024

Why would that be of any concern for the interpreter?

Whether these calls should or should not be recorded might well be a very legitimate question, but why do you think than an interpreter should refuse to provide services based on the fact that the phone call is recorded?

Could you elaborate the logic behind your question?

I've seen all sorts of "interesting" concepts regarding the ethics of interpreting, but this one is new to me.


Becca Resnik
Liviu-Lee Roth
IrinaN (X)
 
Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei
Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei  Identity Verified
Ghana
Local time: 03:14
japonština -> angličtina
As long as they're aware Jan 24, 2024

If the people being recorded are aware that the call was recorded, I don't see any problem. I'd feel more uncomfortable about it if it was a secret wiretap, perhaps by the police or a government agency. And I would absolutely refuse if it was a recording by a stalker/jealous spouse or something similarly crazy.

 
IrinaN (X)
IrinaN (X)
Spojené státy americké
Local time: 22:14
angličtina -> ruština
+ ...
Do the crime - do the time Jan 25, 2024

While some may advocate tree-hugging policy towards the criminals, I prefer to be sure that no drug deals killing teens, stalking or revenge on a judge or a juror can be arranged through a simple free phone call by an inmate who can't do it himself because of the major and unjust misfortune of being locked up and monitored for murdering a human or two... He has rights!

Oh, don't forget to donate a few loafs of bread to the looters (courtesy of AOC)...
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While some may advocate tree-hugging policy towards the criminals, I prefer to be sure that no drug deals killing teens, stalking or revenge on a judge or a juror can be arranged through a simple free phone call by an inmate who can't do it himself because of the major and unjust misfortune of being locked up and monitored for murdering a human or two... He has rights!

Oh, don't forget to donate a few loafs of bread to the looters (courtesy of AOC)
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Liviu-Lee Roth
Daryo
 


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Poll: Would you translate prisoners' phone calls if they had no right to privacy?






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