Tracking Prison Censorship in the United States

Director Charles L. Ryan
Arizona Department of Corrections
1601 W. Jefferson
Phoenix, AZ 85007

January 4, 2012

RE: Censorship incident occurred at ASPC Winslow ? Kaibab Unit; exclusion of publications sent to inmate Mr. XXX by MIM Distributors.

Dear Director Ryan,

I am writing this letter about what seems to be a censorship incident that recently occurred in ASPC Winslow ? Kaibab Unit.

MIM Distributors sent the above mentioned inmate three different issue of a publication titled Under Lock and Key. Precisely MIM Distributors sent Mr. XXX:
❖ Under lock and Key, issue 21 on 07/28/2011
❖ Under lock and Key, issue 22 on 09/21/2011
❖ Under lock and Key, issue 23 on 11/18/2011

We recently learned from the prisoner that he never received any of those publications. Nor did he receive any determination of your Department explaining whether and why the publications were censored. MIM Distributors didn?t receive any notice of censorship determination either.

Your Department Order no. 914 states at section 914.02 par. 1.13 that ?Excluding holidays and weekends, incoming mail shall not be held and shall be delivered within 24 hours unless circumstances make delivery impractical.?

The same Order no. 914 also states that incoming publications may be held only if they are subject to review; in this case, though, prompt notice shall be given to the prisoner, according to the review process established by section 914.09 of the Department Order, which also entitles the prisoner to appeal censorship determinations.

Both the sender and the prisoner have a right, under the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, to receive notice and an opportunity to be heard when prison administrators or staff prevent the sender?s expressive materials from reaching their intended recipients (Procunier v. Martinez, 416 U.S.396. 94 S.Ct 1800, as reaffirmed on the point by Turner V. Safley, 482 U.S. 78 (1987) and Thornburgh v. Abbott, 490 U.S. 401 (1989) and Montcalm Publ'g Corp. v. Beck, 80 F.3d 105, 106 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 928 (1996)). In plain and striking contradiction with these principles, neither Mr. XXX, nor MIM Distributors were notified of the censorship decision.

In refusing to provide notice and an opportunity to be heard to both the prisoner (Mr. XXX) and the publisher (MIM Distributors), under local policies and/or practices, prison administrators and staff violated clearly established constitutional law and acted under color of state law for purposes of 42 U.S.C. ? 1983.

With the present letter, MIM Distributors requests to be notified of the reasons of the censorship decision and to be offered a chance to appeal the exclusion of its materials and/or letter.

We appreciate your assistance in this matter and look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

MIM Distributors


CC: Affected parties

Any time that a publication is excluded, the prison's mail and property room staff must notify the inmate, by a memorandum issues by the division of Director's office/program services, located at the Department of Corrections in Phoenix, Arizona. In my individual case, correctional officers are either throwing away, giving away to another prisoner, or returning subject newsletter to sender.

The reason why i didn't receive any notice of exclusion or censorship, which falls under Department Order #914.02, 1.13, 914.09, is because the publication (ULK) isn't excluded! There are certain correctional staff who work at this prison unit that have a personal problem with my political beliefs. Thus, three (3) issues of my ULK met with foul play!

MIM Distributors protested the censorship of ULKs 22 and 23 at CSP Corcoran. The prisoner reported receiving this letter after MIM Distributors's letter went to the warden.

Warden Connie Gipson
California State Prison - Corcoran
P.O. Box 8800
Corcoran, CA 93212-8309

January 24th, 2012

RE: Censorship incident occurred at California State Prison - Corcoran ? exclusion of publications and letters sent to prisoner xxx by MIM Distributors.

I am writing this letter about what seems to be a censorship incident that recently occurred at CSP-Corcoran.

MIM Distributors sent the above mentioned prisoner, among others, issues no. 22 and 23 of a publication titled Under Lock & Key (respectively on 9/21/2011 and on 11/18/2011) and a letter on 10/12/2011.

We recently learned from the prisoner that he never received the publications or the letter. Nor did he receive any determinations of your Department explaining whether and why the materials were censored. MIM Distributors didn?t receive any notice of censorship determination either.

Your DOM states at sections 54010.16 and 54010.21.3 that respectively prisoners and publishers have to be notified of negative determinations and entitles both the sender and the recipient to appeal rejections of publications and letters.

As of now, it is impossible for us to understand why the publications and the letter haven?t been delivered to the prisoner and whether or not the Administration has decided to censor them.

As you are certainly aware of, the U.S. Supreme Court has clearly stated that both the sender and the prisoner have a right, under the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, to receive notice and an opportunity to be heard when prison administrators or staff prevent the sender?s expressive materials from reaching their intended recipients (Procunier v. Martinez, 416 U.S.396. 94 S.Ct 1800, as reaffirmed on the point by Turner V. Safley, 482 U.S. 78 (1987) and Thornburgh v. Abbott, 490 U.S. 401 (1989) and Montcalm Publ'g Corp. v. Beck, 80 F.3d 105, 106 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 928 (1996)). In plain and striking contradiction with these principles, neither the prisoner, nor MIM Distributors were notified of the censorship decision or actually of any decisions that the Mailroom staff has made with regard to the publications and the letter sent to Mr. xxx.

In refusing to provide notice and an opportunity to be heard to both the prisoner and the publisher (MIM Distributors), under local policies and/or practices, prison administrators and staff violated clearly established constitutional law and acted under color of state law for purposes of 42 U.S.C. ? 1983.

In addition, the practice of holding publications and/or letters for an indefinite time without providing notice of any determination is certainly unconstitutional, as it does not satisfy the obligation that the prison administration has to provide both the sender and the recipient with a decision in a reasonable time and ultimately frustrates the right that both the sender and the prisoner have to appeal a negative determination.

With the present letter, MIM Distributors requests
1. to know whether or not a determination has been made over the mentioned publications and letter;
2. in case of a negative determination, to be notified of the reasons of the censorship decision and to be offered a chance to appeal the exclusion of its materials.

We also request that adequate notice be provided to the prisoner.

We appreciate your assistance in this matter and look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

MIM Distributors

CC: Affected parties

See 9/13/11 docs

Please know that I was able to obtain a hearing yesterday on the administration's rejection of MIM Theory 13, even though MDOC policy doesn't require one to be held due to it already being on the Restricted Publications List (RPL). The hearing officer gave two reasons for upholding the rejection: 1) It was on the RPL; 2) It was racist because there was an article against white supremacists. I found reason number 2 rather illuminating. . . I asked which article she was referring to and, quickly scanning the table of contents, asked her, "Is it the book review criticizing Adolph Hitler's Mein Kampf?" In any event, she could not point out a single reason for the rejection let alone relate it to a serious penological concern. I flipped through it and pointed out many reasons why it should be let in and, of course, one of them was that it is against white supremacy or racial supremacy of any type.

see 11/22/11 docs