Tracking Prison Censorship in the United States

Page 13 Failed Nebraska Protest

see 2/21/14 documentation

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,

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,

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,

Superintendent Keith Butts
1000 Van Nuys Road
PO Box E
New Castle, IN 47362

February 6, 2014

RE: Illegal censorship of publication to Mr. xxx

Dear Superintendent Butts,

On March 1, 2013 MIM Distributors mailed a publication titled Under Lock & Key issue 35 (November/December 2013) to the above-named prisoner held at New Castle Correctional Facility. The publication was mailed via Presorted Standard mail. The publication was returned to MIM Distributors, unopened, with "Return to Sender, Not Deliverable as Addressed" on the outside.

The prisoner's address is correct according to the Indiana Department of Correction Offender Search, and this prisoner has since written to MIM Distributors from New Castle. Yet, this returned publication was not accompanied with any indication as to why it was being returned.

As you are certainly aware, 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 prisoners, 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 listed above.

In refusing to provide notice and an opportunity to be heard to both the prisoners 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.

Sincerely,

MIM Distributors
PO Box 40799
San Francisco, CA 94140

CC: Affected parties