Dear MIM,
Revolutionary greetings. Thought I would inform you of the developments after round 1 in the fight against CCI for the illegal censorship of your invitation to join the USW study group. Captain Stradley is a real devil. The procedure: I receive an invitation to join. I then contact him, and the education department for approval. I do not need their approval to receive an invitation to join; only to participate. He understands this fully. As you can see from his response on this request I sent for an interview, he is starting to shovel a lot of shit! This administration is like that from top to bottom, as wrong as two left shoes. But make excuses that don't fit with the facts.
--a prisoner at CCI Tehachapi, April 2003
MIM adds: the request for an interview was returned to this prisoner stating "according to the letter sent to us by [MIM], they sent you information about a correspondence course, which was apparently returned to them as 'unacceptable at CCI.' The attached letter with my signature is to explain to MIM the process you must follow to be approved for the course. You may contact the SAI via this type of request and obtain the necessary form for approval to participate in the course." Of course if the prison will not allow us to send in a letter to invite this prisoner to participate in a course, he can't get permission to participate.
More recently the prison at Tehachapi censored a letter sent to another prisoner who had joined the study group which contained study questions for him to answer. It included a note stating that this material required approval of the education coordinator. The prisons do not provide any education programs themselves and then make it impossible for prisoners to participate in the few programs available to them like study groups offered by MIM. To protest this censorship send letters to Warden Art Calderon, California Correctional Institution, PO Box 1906, Tehachapi, CA 93581.