Dear MIM,
I just got MIM Notes for April and I wanted to touch base and let you know. There were several articles I really enjoyed reading, namely "Amerika - the real nuclear rogue state", "Thousands support Palestinian self-determination", and of course everything dealing with prison censorship of inmates First Amendment liberties. The latter of the three subjects is of great interest to me because I have recently been studying up on the facially overbroad regulation of publications due in no small part to the fact that these capitalist swine rejected a book I ordered entitled Peristroka from the U.$. book club (they're cheap and I'm broke). There is little doubt that mailroom officials may conclude certain publications, though seemingly innocuous to laymen, have significant implications for the order and security of the prison. However, it is equally certain that prison walls do not form a barrier separating prison inmates from the protection of the constitution, nor do they bar free citizens from exercising their own constitutional rights by reaching out to those on the inside - Turner v. Safely, 482 U.S. 78 96 LED 2nd 64, 107 SC&2254.
The limitations placed upon First Amendment Freedoms must be no greater than necessary or essential to the protection of the particular governmental interest involved. These swine (read mail-room officials) are sweeping their censorship too wide, and therefore are placing unnecessary burdens upon many inmates rights. The first question a prisoner should ask himself is whether the actions of the officials is reasonably related to penological interests.
-a prisoner in TN, May 2002
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