Missouri Petition Against Violations of Constitution

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Missouri Petition Against Violations of Constitution

initiated in April 2010
updated on March 17, 2016

This campaign attempts to remedy various systemic violations of the United $tates Constitution by Missouri Department of Corrections (MDOC) policies and practices.

In a campaign from 2010, comrades were organizing against a ban on musical recordings with explicit content labels.

“On February 1 2010 the Director of Adult Institutions, Tom Clements, signed a new censorship policy. Many of you should now be aware of the blanket ban on all musical recordings which carry a parental advisory label, which will no longer be allowed in any Missouri prisons. For a number of years now they have been arbitrarily denying any books or literature of a historical, social, political or religious nature that they don’t agree with.

“Part of this campaign is a brief complaint to the Director airing our grievance with regard to this new censorship policy and the continual censor of our social and political books, literature and newsletters. The general idea here is to send in as many individual complaints as possible to the Director and the Department of Justice and other officials. And if they ignore us and do nothing, it proves our point when we say that they don’t give a damn about us. If we don’t do something now, don’t be crying when the only books and magazines available are Dr. Seuss and the only music the Mickey Mouse Club!

“If you don’t have the finances to copy the complaint, hand write them and you can utilize the”inside mail” procedure to send your complaint to DOC officials. Please send in any and all responses that you receive to MIM(Prisons) at the address below. They will be assisting us in this fight.”

In 2016, MIM(Prisons) started supporting comrades organizing against denial of access to the courts. The petition sent in focuses on people held in Administrative Segregation Units, but can easily be adapted for use in other housing levels.

You can support this campaign from the outside by sending your loved ones the petitions (in the “downloadable petition” links below). If you are a lawyer interested in these topics, get in touch so we can push these struggles even further. Always feel free to link to this campaign from other sites.

Updates/Reports from Inside

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