Judge: Learn English or go to jail
 

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/03/27/judge.sentence.ap/index.html


WILKES-BARRE, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A judge known for creative sentencing has ordered three Spanish-speaking men to learn English or go to jail.

The men, who faced prison for criminal conspiracy to commit robbery, can remain on parole if they learn to read and write English, earn their GEDs and get full-time jobs, Luzerne County Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. said.

Excellent judgement I must say.

Nice judge ... :)

Should be mandatory for all non-english speakers in the justice system.

+1:smart:

until some nutjob in the aclu says it's unconstitutional

WTF? Send them to jail.

Sweet! The last vestage of old America hasn't been killed yet!

Edit: Actualy that sentence could be the best thing for those guys. Insted of going to jail and becoming worse criminals they are now being given an oppertunity to build respectable lives. Its a shotgun oppertunity but, meh its all good.

That was my first thought, but not being there I might agree with the judge if I had the same facts he had to look at.

Tom W

Reading the article, it looks like learning English is a condition of their parole. There were four originally, the three who have to learn English had already served their four months.