In recent years MIM has reported on censorship problems in Snake River Correctional Institution(SRCI) in Oregon. A comrade recently sent us the following information from the SRCI newsletter:
"Books from Publishers and Distributors
The SRCI Mail Processing Center is now accepting books from all publishers and distributors, including bookstores. Publications from bookstores must be mailed from the point of purchase and not from the person purchasing the publication (ie. their house). Mailroom staff will inspect the book prior to issuing it to you. This will make it easier for senders to mail your books and will reduce the amount of books being returned to the sender."
This is a step forward, and will help MIM which publishes and distributes its own stuff. But this still amounts to an unreasonable limit on prisoners' access to reading materials, forcing friends and family to pay full price and have books shipped directly to the prison. MIM frequently sends used books in to prisoners, and this Oregon policy prohibits us from doing this. MIM will continue to challenge these restrictions in our day-to-day work of getting books into prisoners in SRCI and around the country. We will keep you updated on these struggles here in the pages of Under Lock and Key.