Eldon Vail, Assistant Director Division of Prisons  Washington Dept. of Corrections P.O. Box 41123 Olympia, WA  98504-1123

Dr. Mr. Vail: I am appealing a 3/1/97 Offender Mail Rejection notice for  MIM Notes. The notice was signed by Sgt. Sutton and the  reason given was: "Rejected by Director of Prisons.  Advocates to Seize Power Through Armed Struggle'."

I believe the publication is being rejected for its  political content, not merely because of the slogan cited on  the rejection notice. The publication does not direct  prisoners to take up arms against their captors. The  publication does not contain specific instructions as to how  prisoners could thus arm themselves. It does not contain  plans to escape, nor does it describe procedures for  constructing weapons, bomb, incendiary devices, etc.

There are no articles in the publication which specifically  incite prisoners to rebel against their captors. The  publication is no more radical than the Declaration of  Independence, which also advocates the seizure of state  power, by armed struggle if necessary.

To claim that the publication's slogan (buried in fine print  in the info box on page two) presents "a threat to  legitimate penological objectives" is to imply that  preventing prisoner from reading political material that  runs counter to the political beliefs espoused by the DOC or  its employees is a "legitimate penological objective."

If you or the Director of Prisons, of the DOC think that  prisoners may feel directed to manufacture weapons and begin  the seizure of state power -- merely because they read such  a slogan -- is to stretch credulity far beyond the bounds of  sensibility. I have read the slogan "Go Seahawks!" a  thousand times. It has yet to incite me to watch a Seahawk  football game, much less root for the team.

I ask they you reconsider the rejection of MIM Notes or  explain to me precisely how you think the slogan in question  is a legitimate threat to the penological objectives of TRCC  or the DOC.

-- A Washington State Prisoner, 6Mar97

Letters of Protest can be sent to: Eldon Vail, Assistant  Director, Division of Prisons, Washington Dept. of  Corrections, P.O. Box 41123, Olympia, WA 98504-1123

 CENSORSHIP IN FLORIDA CONTINUES

 Comrades, Despite my last letter to you, the censorship of MIM Notes,  along with two other publications, continues. While my  appeals to get the paper and requests for a reason why it's  being denied go unanswered.

I've now been told that issues 127 and 128 were sent to me  "by mistake" and may be taken as contraband. And, while I  had been told issues 125 and 126 were sent to the "Captain"  for approval, our mail room staff claim to know nothing  about them. I mailed you the form saying they'd been denied  and put in my property.

Today I learned you are not alone. After much complaining  property brought me my previously denied publication, which  I thought were MIM Notes. Unfortunately, what they brought  me was not MIM Notes, but 2 items from the Justice  Department, 3 issues of Workers World and two issues of  Weekly News Update on the Americas. All had been denied me  without notice, nor reason, until approved by the  administration.

I would please ask you to call or write our Jail Director  Halsteadt, and ask her to stop the random censorship of a  legitimate newspaper, and to have y previously seized copies  of MIM Notes returned to me, or provide both of us a  legitimate reason of why (exactly) they can not be since,  I've received other issues of the same paper....

In Struggle, but with hope!
--A Florida Prisoner, 9 Jan 97

Letters of Protest Can be sent to: Jail Director Halsteadt,  Palm Beach County Jail, 3228 Gun Club Rd., West Palm Beach,  FL 33406, or call her at: (561) 688-3000.

 LATINO PRISONERS ALSO CONTINUE THE STRUGGLE IN FLORIDA

 First of all let me make my brothers aware that here in  Florida they have taken the movies and the weights from us.  And they are building and have built a "Close Management  Cell Block" in most of the prisons. I find myself in such a  predicament. Locked up 24 hours a day with 3 showers a week  and only two hours of sunshine a week.

But we are also in our struggle with the red necks that run  the Florida prison system. They have made rules about  letting us only receive on newspaper subscription and one  magazine subscription. Well I have 3 magazine subscriptions  and the "Miami Herald", but I'm stopping the Miami paper in  order to receive MIM, and I'm losing money my family paid  for my magazines.

But I'm keeping faith that someday we shall overcome these  pigs in these close management units. They mace us with gas  and they handcuff us, plus put shackles on our legs when we  leave the cell all the time....

The money that was paying for the movies and weights is our  money that they made from the inmate canteen, but the  taxpayers complained that we had it made and that the  weights were turning out "super-prisoners". Now they charge  us for medical care, for legal copies. It is so bad that the  weaker prisoners are giving up hope.

... I'm Cuban and I served in the US Marine Corps in this  country and they treat me like shit. Also I'm HIV positive  and they are denying me the new AIDS medication called  Protease inhibitors. [They say it's] because it costs too  much but, there are white prisoners who are receiving this  treatment here in this prison.... So keep the fight going  and may we overcome the pigs and their injustice system.

Respectfully,
--A Florida Prisoner, 21 Jan. 97

 MAIL TAMPERING IN NEW YORK

 People of MIM, ...I have been meaning to write you. In fact I did write to  you once, but the pigs intercepted it, opened it, and sent  it back to me. They told me that business mail must not be  sealed. Needless to say, I tried to argue against their  policy.

According to several law cases, the prison officials are not  supposed to stop outgoing mail without following a set  standard of procedure. But, because many of the prisoner in  this prison system are uneducated in the law or plain old

spineless, these pigs get away with murder, yes even  literally.

Needless to say, I went everywhere over everybody's head  trying to find justice in this so-called justice system, and  ran into nothing but brick walls. It's really hard to veat  these people, but I and prisoners such as I will keep  trying....

--A New York Prisoner, 6Dec97

 PRISONER GIVES CENSORSHIP ADVICE

 Dear Brothers and Sisters: I am writing this letter to let you that I have received the  December 1st and 15th issues of MIM Notes, and also, to  comment on several letters I read concerning the censorship  of the paper by prisoncrats around the country.

As a prisoner who has been involved in litigation against  prison administrators for nearly thirty years, I would like  to suggest that you urge any prisoner denied access to MIM  Notes to first exhaust their administrative remedies, and  then pursue their compliant in their local federal district  court. The law is quite clear as to what publication review  committees may reject, and the content of the paper does not  meet that standard.

Also, it is more than a tad expensive for the prison's  lawyers to defend a lawsuit, especially when the con learns  to use the federal rules of civil procedure to obtain  discovery materials; not only do you cost the state money,  but additional benefits can be derived by publicizing the  petty actions by these prisoncrats, while tying them up with  answering your written interrogatories and submitting to  oral depositions. These people (?) are used to being in  control, and they get very uptight when they are put on the  defensive. Lastly, it should be noted that if enough  convicts sue a particular warden, his supervisors will  eventually take notice that even by their standards, he is  doing something wrong, and they may decide to order him to  back off.

I would strongly recommend that every prisoner should obtain  a copy of the Prisoners' Self-Help Litigation Manual, and  study it from cover to cover. A revolution cries out for  each individual to step forward and make those advances for  the cause that each person is capable of accomplishing. Every person confined within these walls is capable of being  a royal pain in the ass to every employee of the prisons  system merely by continuously bringing complaints of illegal  behavior to the attention of the court system. From  censorship to disciplinary matters, the system rarely  follows the law -- it is up to us to challenge the system  each and every step of the way, to ensure that our  constitutional rights are not taken away arbitrarily by  those who are supposedly teaching us to "respect the law".

Finally it is important for each and every one of us to  realize that we should immediately refuse to accept any job  assignment which furthers the objectives of the prison  system. The gulag system itself would come to a screeching  halt if we refused to work as plumbers, painters,  carpenters, electricians, and cooks. While they may force me  to push a broom, I refuse to share my knowledge with my  captors, and I will do nothing that a free-world civilian  should be doing. I will do everything within my ability to  confront the system till my last dying breath, and then,  hopefully, I will have inspired at least one person to  continue to follow in my footsteps.  -- An Illinois Prisoner, 7 Jan 97