Tracking Prison Censorship in the United States

Robert Schisler
Publication Review Officer
Hill Correctional Center
600 Linwood Rd
PO Box 1327
Galesburg, IL 61401

25 June 2007

Dear Mr. Schisler:


We have received another censorship notice from your office stating the same reasons as last time. This was for the The Party Bulletin Issue #3, sent to Mr. XXXXXX XXXXXX (#XXXXXX). We are enclosing the same arguments that we provided in our last letter in case you did not receive them. If we do not receive a letter from you reversing this decision then we will take that to mean that you will continue to openly violate our First Amendment rights to political beliefs and affiliations. We are in the process of further investigating the mailroom policies and legalities of such at your institution. We will be contacting you regarding those findings if we do not hear from you first.

The reasons given for this censorship include:

1) Depict, describe, or encourage activities that may lead to the use of physical violence or group disruption or it facilitates organizational activity without approval of the Chief Administrative Officer.

2) Advocate or encourage violence, hatred, or group disruption or it poses an intolerable risk of violence or disruption.

3) Encourage or instruct in the commission of criminal activity.

4) Be otherwise detrimental to security, good order, rehabilitation, or discipline or it might facilitate criminal activity or be detrimental to mental health.

5) Pamphlet advocates revolution.

Let me take this opportunity to dispute these 5 claims. The first part of point 1 is unfounded, in that the Party Bulletin never advocates violence or group disruption at Hill Correctional Center or any other prison. On the contrary, we explicitly work to discourage the tendencies to react violently to the prison environment among our prisoner readership. As far as facilitating unapproved organizational activity, we have made no efforts to help prisoners anywhere in Illinois form organizations. If we were to do so in the future, we would certainly advise such organizations to follow the relevant rules and regulations of the institutions in doing so.

Point 2 is completely unfounded. Nowhere does the Party Bulletin encourage violence. Our Party stands for an end to violence and oppression.

Point 3 is completely unfounded. Nowhere does the Party Bulletin instruct anyone to commit criminal activity. On page 13 of Issue 2 the Party Bulletin expressly criticizes New Afrikans for engaging in criminal activity. Our work is focused on getting people out of prison and keeping them out by putting their energy into building positive institutions within the community rather than engaging in activities that are destructive to the community.

Point 4 seems to be a catch all that is just reinforcing ideas I have addressed above. The Party Bulletin discourages criminal behavior, explicitly discourages prisoners from breaking the rules in prison and our Party spends a large amount of our resources helping to promote rehabilitation of current and former prisoners. The results of these efforts can be witnessed in prisoners that are affiliated with us who are consistently disciplined young men who avoid trouble with staff and prisoners and promote these ideals among fellow prisoners.

The Comments section seems to expose the real reasoning behind the decision to reject our publication, that it ?advocates revolution.? Fortunately for us, the First Amendment protects our human rights to believe in any political ideology that we choose and to advocate those beliefs. This includes our rights to affiliate with other people and organizations that share these ideas. In Procunier v. Martinez, the Supreme Court upheld the right of prisoners to receive mail from outside organizations regardless of the opinions of prison staff of those organizations or their ideas.

Upon further review you will find that we do not promote violence or criminal behavior in any of our publications. Therefore it is illegal to censor our communications with Mr. XXXXXX or any of our efforts to promote our beliefs among the prisoners at your institution.

In light of the above, we respectfully request that the Party Bulletin be released to Mr. XXXXXX and that the censorship of our materials at Hill CC ceases.

Thank you for your consideration in this matter,

New Afrikan Maoist Party