I wish to apprise you of the recent censored mail to and from your area.
As you can probably recall, I promised to send you $20 off my books in
exchange for reading material back in August. Well that month has long
been left in our background.
I have attempted to get it processed from the start, yet finally it was
blocked for the so-called reason that MIM is banned. I find that hard to
believe because when you sent magazines and they were returned, the
Sergeant who spoke to me checked into it and specifically told me MIM
was not on the banned list. Still, in the documentation they refer to a
memo from 2006.
Furthermore, the Trust Officer told me that anything over $50 has to be
approved by Squad in advance. My donation was way below the $50 mark to
go to Squad, yet before responding back to my request, my Counselor
forwarded it to Squad. So yes, the Trust Office was just deflecting my
question.
In the recent events of hunger strikes I think these pigs are getting
petty and they are bringin up their repression tactics by stripping out
all property from those who participated. Sending you
money from my account seems to be out of the question for the time
being.
The policies regarding donations is actually simple. As it states in
Title 15 Section 3240.1 Donations, “Inmates may with permission of the
institution head make voluntary donations from their trust account funds
for any approved reason or cause. Permission shall be denied if any of
the following exist: (a) There is evidence of coercion. (b) The inmate’s
trust account balance is less than the amount of the proposed donation.
(c) The inmate is mentally incompetent. (d) The proposed amount of the
donation is less than one dollar. (e) The reason or cause advocated
could jeopardize facility security or the safety of persons.”
None of the above pertain to the case at hand. It is an illegal stretch
of the policy for this donation to be denied.
MIM(Prisons) Legal Coordinator adds: Recently, there has been
much discussion and some legal challenges to the law stating that
corporations are people with the rights to free speech in the form of
unlimited spending on political causes. Incidents like this beg the
question, are prisoners people? Do they have the rights promised to
people in U.$. law? The stories printed in ULK tend to support
the answer as “no.”
Regarding the alleged ban on MIM, on July 12, 2011, Appeals Examiner K.
J. Allen, an employee who investigates Director’s Level Appeals, stated
in an appeal decision to a prisoner,
“While Maoist International [sic] Movement publications were previously
disallowed based upon the direction of CDCR administration staff, the
publications are currently not listed on the Centralized List of
Disapproved Publications. Thus, a blanket denial on all such
publications is inappropriate, and the institution must process the
appellant’s mail in accordance with applicable departmental
rules/regulations.
“As with all publications, the appellant’s mailing must be reviewed and
evaluated on a case-by-case basis in accordance with all departmental
regulations. Unless this specific Maoist International Movement
publication is considered contraband, as noted within the CCR 3006, the
publication shall be issued to the appellant and/or allowed to be
ordered and received.” (When citing this Director’s Level Appeal
Decision, it may be helpful to use IAB Case No. 1020001.)
The Director’s level is the top of the top within the California
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). A decision made at
the Director’s level would generally apply to all facilities and all
prisoners in the CDCR system. When the author of this article cited the
above Director’s Level Appeal Decision in defense of h donation to
MIM(Prisons), s/he was told to omit it from h grievance because it
“belongs to another inmate.” How a Director’s Level Decision simply
re-explaining and re-correcting a CDCR practice can “belong” to only one
prisoner is beyond reason.
In ULK 24 we put
a call out for donations to keep Under Lock & Key
functioning at its current capacity. When a prisoner is unable to send a
donation to MIM(Prisons), the prison administrators are limiting our
ability to publish and send out literature, thereby illegally limiting
our (and the donating prisoner’s) First Amendment right to free speech.
When they cite a defunct memorandum to limit donations, it is even more
egregious.
At least one persyn in the CDCR’s Director’s office made at least one
correct decision, at least once. We encourage our comrades to continue
grieving and re-grieving the defunct 2006 ban of MIM Distributors up to
the top, and take it to court if necessary. To help in this process,
we’ve put together a history of the ban with quotations for specific
facilities. We are sending out this Censorship Guide Supplement for
California to help prisoners hold administrators to their word. Write in
to get it.
