Tracking Prison Censorship in the United States

Warden Derral Adams
CSATF
PO Box 8800
Corcoran, CA 93212-8309

6 April 2009

Mr. Adams,

This letter is to request a review of the decision by staff member M. Seminario to censor mail sent by MIM Distributors to Mr. XXXXXX XXXXXX.

According to the Centralized List of Disapproved Publications, dated October 21, 2008, ?The centralized list of disapproved publications supersedes any prior departmental or facility memoranda regarding banned publications. Facilities must use only the most updated version of the centralized list to identify publications subject to a general ban.? MIM Distributors does not appear on this list.

I do not have a copy of the memo that was attached to the enclosed notification of disapproval, but I assume it is the letter from Scott Kernan from 2005, which has been superseded by the list cited above. Therefore, I am requesting that the Under Lock & Key and subsequent mail from MIM Distributors be delivered to Mr. XXXXXX and any other prisoners being held at CSATF. If you do not deliver these items to Mr. XXXXXX then I am requesting an explanation of your refusal.


Thank you for your time,

Warden Derral Adams
CSATF
PO Box 8800
Corcoran, CA 93212-8309

23 June 2009

Mr. Adams,

In April I wrote you to request that the mail room at CSATF abide by the current mail policies of the CDCR, particularly as ordered in the court settlement with Prison Legal News that was approved over 2 years ago. Following that settlement, the illegal ban on MIM Distributor?s mail in California was rescinded.

In response to my April letter, C. Pugliese, Mailroom Sergeant acknowledged that the ban was overturned and that mail from MIM Distributors must be reviewed according to the California Code of Regulations (CCR). Yet, the mail in question was neither deemed to violate the CCR, nor was it forwarded to its intended recipient (XXXXXX XXXXXX) to our knowledge.

In addition, we have continued to receive notifications from people held at CSATF that their mail is being censored ?per memorandum from Division of Adult Institutions, ban of Maoist International Movement Publications.?

As of last month, CSATF is the only facility in California that is still treating the 2005 memo as current policy that we have documented. Can you please advise me as to why the mailroom staff are not following the rules that the mailroom sergeant acknowledges that it should be following?


Thank you for your time,