The Psychological Issues Involved With Teaching ESL to Incarcerated Hispanic Males in an American Prison System

On September 4, 1983, I began an ESL teaching position at Southeastern Correctional Center and at Bridgewater State Hospital, both in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. The former is a medium security correctional facility which houses approximately 700 men, whose crimes range from murder to auto theft. The latter is a maximum security hospital for the criminally insane which houses approximately 500 men, whose crimes as well range from murder to auto theft. Those men housed at Bridgewater State Hospital are there for one of the following reasons: 1. They are undergoing pre-trial psychiatric evaluation. 2. They have been convicted of a crime and sentenced to a term of imprisonment, but because of psychiatric reasons, cannot be housed at a regular correctional facility. 3. They have been found guilty by reason of insanity. My task was to design and · implement an ESL program for the non-English speaking population of each institution. At that time, the non-English speaking populations consisted of only Puerto Ricans