Increased censorship in Rhode Island

It is my hope that this letter reaches ya'll. I have been trying to correspond with ya'll for some time. However, the neo-fascists who run this prison R.I./DOC/A.C.I-MSC have been throwing my mail out to the garbage--both personal mail and legal mail. Hopefully this letter makes it.

The state of affairs here is continued repression. The pending litigation against the prison here in regards to censorship is slow. This is due to the fact that the ACLU has had to wait on filing the suit due to the RI DOC getting rid of aspects of their old policy, so those issue weren't in effect. But only until they waited to stop the ACLU from filing. They have now implemented the same policy #24.01-3 with more repressive regulations.

The SIU investigators have also started to intercept outgoing mail, and booking inmates for the kind of speech used in letters. To be specific they are targeting Muslims. Also Muslim inmates have had their services restricted to six inmates at Muslim services only. However, the Christian services are allowed to receive the whole module of 24 plus persons. The neo-fascist prisoncrats have also denied an orthodox Jew from practicing the Hebrew faith. Stating that he has to be approved of his Judaism by a prison Rabbi.

They also have targeted the prisoner who is at the forefront of fighting the censorship here, by denying him his books. Meaning he will get pre-approved to purchase said books in accordance with the policy 24.01-3. However when his books arrive, they will not be delivered stating security question as said reason. The mailroom officer will not notify him in writing. And the buildings grievance coordinator Lt. Getter will not issue him grievance forms as required by mail policy 24.01-3 in order to appeal the denial of his books. The books are being rejected solely by reading the titles. There is no one who reads the whole book in order to specify what section is objected to.

This is in all actuality reprisal for his activism. Books on computer programming, physics books, and science books have been denied. There are no TVs or radios anymore and the only thing to occupy ones mind, books, are being taken away too. Most prisoners are kept here for years on 23-24 hour a day lockdown, with no contact visits. One non-contact visit once a week during working hours (900 to 10:30 AM or 1:00 to 2:30 PM.) We live in a state of despair. Hope is all but just about gone!

-- a RI prisoner, July 2003