Ban On Publications at Georgia's Oldest Prison
Georgia State Prison (GSP), the oldest prison in Georgia is rodent and vermin infested with numerous maintenance problems. Tier II prisoners, housed in what Georgia prison officials call a Long Term Segregation Program based on your behavior, call it torture. Prison officials are enforcing a regulation to ban all legitimate publications which are mailed to prisoners in Tier II regardless of what phase (Tier II has 3 phases) they are on. These legal publications are mailed from the publisher. They include newspapers, all books, and all magazines. Specifically, the ban is on: San Francisco Bay View Newspaper, Chattanooga Times, Free Press Newspaper, Prison Legal News Magazine, MIM’s Prison Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Atlanta Journal and any other legally authorized publications. The ban is only on prisoners in the Tier II Segregation Program. No one else.
The First and Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees me the right to free speech and to the press and equal protection of law. The Georgia Constitution Article I Section I Paragraph II (equal protection of law) and Paragraph V (freedom of speech and to the press) are rights under Georgia Law.
To “return to sender” all my magazines, newspapers and books violates my constitutionally protected rights. None of these aforenamed publications were banned at any other Georgia prison I have been held at. I notified, by letter, Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) Commissioner Gregory Dozier; Statewide GDC Tier Coordinator Otis Stanton; GDC SE Region Field Operations Manager Robert Toole; GSP Warden Marty Allen. All showed deliberate indifference to my issue by failing to respond to the illegal ban of publication problem.
Georgia prisoners are so divided along racial, class and STG gang lines that any attempt to organize any form of mass action rebuttal to these egregious and illegal acts by Georgia prison officials will falter. The fear that the GDC has employed on most prisoners prevents the addressing of constitutional rights violations.
As a “jailhouse lawyer” holding active membership with the National Lawyer’s Guild, I have been fighting administratively and with civil action for redress of Georgia officials’ numerous malfeasance since 2005.
This illegal publication ban fails to pass the “smell test.” I have begun my quest to correct this illegal violation by filing a Formal Grievance, which is a joke, but must be done as a start to any civil action which will follow.
I solicit the assistance of all news organizations, prints, digital and television as I again take on the GDC in court. My three (3) current civil actions pending and my numerous previous civil actions show that the GDC cannot and will not ever intimidate this writer. My fight for my right to free speech and the press and equal protection of law continues.
