MIM Notes 186 May 15 1999

Pigs use whatever reason works to censor

An Indiana prisoner sent MIM the prison paperwork related to the 
censorship of his Notas Rojas subscription. The first censorship 
notice said that Notas Rojas contained possible gang related 
signs. The Security Threat Coordinator of the facility was 
notified of the fact that MIM sent Notas Rojas to the prisoner. 
Nowhere on the notice did the officials specify what signs in NR 
were allegedly gang related.

The prisoner responded by filing a grievance which stated that 
neither the prisoner nor MIM were gang-related.

The response to the prisoner's grievance?

"The material that is in question was translated from Spanish to 
English. I was informed that this material is explaining how to 
overthrow and to keep the American backed businesses out of 
Mexico. This type of literature is a threat to the safety and 
security of the facility. It will not be released to the offender 
but may be sent out at the offender's expense or destroyed per 
IDOC procedures."

According to the Indiana statute related to correctional standards 
and procedures, a prisoner's "correspondence may not be read, 
censored, copied, or otherwise interfered with in regard to its 
prompt delivery unless: (1) The department has reasonable grounds 
to believe that the correspondence: (A) Poses an immediate danger 
to the safety of an individual or a serious threat to the security 
of the facility or program; or (B) Is prohibited under section 
2(b) [IC 11-11-3-2(b)] of this chapter; or (2) The correspondence 
contains contraband or prohibited property. . . (c) For purposes 
of this section, disagreement with the sender's or receiver's 
apparent moral, political, ethical, ethnic, or religious values or 
attitudes, veracity, or choice of words may not be used as a 
reason for censoring, copying, delaying, or disallowing the 
delivery of a personal communication." Burns Ind. Code Ann. Sec. 
11-11-3-4 (1998). (Section 2(b), referred to above, is not 
applicable to correspondence and subscriptions sent by MIM to 
comrades inside the walls of Amerika's dungeons.)

This is a perfect example of how prison officials can make up 
their own "rules" in flagrant violation of even those few laws on 
the books which do recognize a prisoner's "right" to receive 
literature and correspondence. The law in Indiana says that a 
prisoner can "send and receive, in any language, an unlimited 
amount of correspondence to or from any person," except another 
prisoner.(11-11-3-2)

So, the fact that NR is in Spanish does not provide the Indiana 
pigs with a legal reason to censor the subscriptions. And the fact 
that the pigs disagree with MIM's politics or choice of words also 
does not provide a legal justification for censorship of NR.

MIM calls on all readers to work with MIM to stop prison 
censorship of political material. To find out what you can do, 
contact us.