Tracking Prison Censorship in the United States

Regional Director
Paul M. Laird
Gateway Complex Tower II
8th Floor
400 State Avenue
Kansas City, KS 66101-2492
March 6, 2014

RE: Censorship incident December 13, 2013 at U.S. Penitentiary Florence to Mr. xxx

Dear Regional Director,

On October 14, 2013 MIM Distributors mailed Mr. xxx a magazine via First Class Mail with the USPS. The magazine is titled MIM Theory 10: Labor Aristocracy. On December 13, 2013, a magazine titled MIM Theory 7: Revolutionary Nationalism was claimed to be censored from Mr. xxx by the Warden of USP Florence. However, MIM Theory 7 was never mailed to Mr. xxx. At the same time, MIM Theory 10 was never received by Mr. xxx, and this Notification to Inmate and Publisher/Sender of Rejected Publication was returned to MIM Distributors with the invoice for MIM Theory 10.

I am writing to inform you of the sloppy administration on the part of the Warden of USP Florence. With my present letter I have enclosed a copy of the invoice and censorship notification in question. You can see even the sender's name is misspelled on this censorship form.

I am also writing to inquire about the censorship of the magazine MIM Theory 10: Labor Aristocracy, which was actually mailed to Mr. xxx. Currently MIM Distributors has not been notified of any reason for this censorship, and in fact we have not even been notified that an incident of censorship has occurred.

I appreciate you looking into this matter and await your response.

Sincerely,

MIM Distributors
PO Box 40799
San Francisco, CA 94140

CC: Affected parties

Department of Corrections
ATTN: Library Service Administrator
501 S Calhoun St
Tallahassee, FL 32399-2500

23 February 2014

RE: Impounding of Under Lock & Key No. 36 at Mayo Correctional Institution

Dear Sir/Madam,

This letter is to appeal the decision by Mayo CI to impound Under Lock & Key No. 36. The reason given is that pg.13 is ?dangerously inflammatory.? That page contains an article that is critical of Florida Department of Corrections policies and actions. Please note that it is against the law to censor materials because they are critical of your department or because you disagree with them politically (see Walker v. Sumner (9th Cir. 1990) 917 F.2d 382, 385).

I am requesting that you allow all individuals held by FDOC to receive Issue 36 of Under Lock & Key.

Sincerely,

1) Per Ch. 33-501.401, the person rejecting the material must have the office of Asst. Warden or higher. *The person rejecting mine, P. Lindsay, is a mailroom employee, not an assistant warden. She is below the required rank so the rejection is unauthorized.

2) Reason listed is "PG. 13".
This is not a valid reason. Ch. 33-501.401 states that the reason "shall" list the page number and "specific/detailed" reasons why. *So the reason, "PG. 13" is unauthorized as well.

Under Ch. 33, the person must hold the newsletter until I have exhausted my administrative remedies, then I have 30 days to send it out.

Department of Corrections
ATTN: Library Service Administrator
501 S Calhoun St
Tallahassee, FL 32399-2500

23 February 2014

RE: Impounding of Under Lock & Key No. 36 at Mayo Correctional Institution

Dear Sir/Madam,

This letter is to appeal the decision by Mayo CI to impound Under Lock & Key No. 36. The reason given is that pg.13 is ?dangerously inflammatory.? That page contains an article that is critical of Florida Department of Corrections policies and actions. Please note that it is against the law to censor materials because they are critical of your department or because you disagree with them politically (see Walker v. Sumner (9th Cir. 1990) 917 F.2d 382, 385).

I am requesting that you allow all individuals held by FDOC to receive Issue 36 of Under Lock & Key.

Sincerely,

Department of Corrections
ATTN: Library Service Administrator
501 S Calhoun St
Tallahassee, FL 32399-2500

23 February 2014

RE: Failure to notify publisher of censorship of Under Lock & Key 35

Dear Sir/Madam,

This letter is to document that once again MIM Distributors was not notified by the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) when one of its publications was impounded nor when it was later rejected. I am requesting that the FDOC follow its own policies and respect the publisher's rights to Due Process under the Fourteenth Amendment (see Montcalm Publ'g Corp. v. Beck, 80 F.3d 105, 106 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 928 (1996)).

In September 2013, my colleague Bailey Clarke wrote to you regarding this same matter and Susan Hughes responded explaining that only one facility will notify the publisher of censorship. However, once again, no FDOC staff from any facility has notified MIM Distributors of the censorship of Under Lock & Key No. 35, which was mailed to prisoners on 6 December 2013. We have only recently become aware of this censorship due to a number of letters from prisoners in Polk Correctional Institution, Santa Rosa Correctional Institution and Florida State Prison. Some of them were notified of the censorship by your department, some were not. I have enclosed the documentation for those who were provided with it.

I hope that you will honor my request for an appeal of this decision to censor, since the FDOC failed to notify MIM Distributors of the censorship and therefore the 15 days within receiving notice has not yet been passed. The notice of rejection from Santa Rosa CI states that your office has deemed ULK 35 banned because it ?otherwise presents a threat to the security, good order, or discipline? of FDOC. If you uphold this decision, please provide evidence that this literature poses an immediate threat to the safety of your institution as is required by federal case law.


Sincerely,