Tracking Prison Censorship in the United States

Randy Greer
Mail Administrator, OR DOC
2575 Center Street NE
Salem, OR 97310

18 February 2007

Dear Mr. Greer,

This letter is in response to the censorship of two magazines (What is MIM? and MIM Theory No. 4) sent to Mr. XXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXX at SRCI in January 2007. The magazines were sent by MIM Distributors, who are also the publishers of the magazines. The reported reason for this censorship was ?foreign substance on magazine? (see enclosed Mail Violation Notice). This is apparently a reference to a small brown dot on the center of the front cover of the MIM Theory No. 4 magazine (see enclosed photocopy).

Mr. Greer, you may be aware of a similar struggle we had at TRCI last year regarding a copy of MIM Theory that was deemed ?used? and rejected. While we were not able to establish a clear standard for how ?new? vs. ?used? materials are judged, MIM Distributors has responded by ceasing its previous practice of sending damaged materials to prisoners in Oregon that would not be useable on newstands or in bookstores. Despite this, we have encountered this problem again with this recent incident. It is also unclear why the second magazine was censored.

I understand that we may not seek administrative review for these incidents. But it does seem clear that there is a concerted effort to find excuses to prevent MIM?s publications from being received by prisoners in many of the ODOC?s facilities. So I am writing this letter to document this incident for yourself and the SRCI mailroom in hopes that you can work to ensure a more reasonable enforcement of the mail policy.

Thank you for your attention in this matter,