N.Va. Prisoner Lost in Translation

If he had, Land said, "somebody would have heard him." Of the jail's 252 employees, 30 speak Spanish. At the courthouse, four of the 34 employees who work for the General District Court can speak the language. Hays said those four are often called on to help translate.

"The object is not to send them away and say, 'I can't help you, buddy. Go learn the language.' We don't do that," she said.

On a typical morning, Kaiser bounces between Spanish and English at least once every few minutes. "Archives," she tells one man. " Archivo ," she tells another.

She has worked at the courthouse for 22 years and taught herself Spanish in 1992, when she first noticed the influx of Salvadoran and Mexican immigrants in Prince William.

The county has grown to 16.4 percent Hispanic, compared with 5.7 percent in Virginia, according to the latest census.

"I made the stupid mistake of learning, 'May I help you?' first," she said, adding that she would then inevitably have to tell people she couldn't understand anything else.

Since then, Kaiser has learned enough Spanish to ask about individual cases, to give directions to the appropriate courtroom, to converse on a basic level.

She even developed a course that she has taught to firefighters, several lawyers and a judge at the courthouse.

The county offers a $1,500 stipend to Spanish speakers, but the last time Kaiser took the test, she failed. She said it tested her vocabulary on everything but court matters.

"Everyone says you should just say, 'No, I don't speak Spanish,' " Kaiser said. "Then what? Just let it all fall apart?"