Western IL Correctional Center - Federal

I’m writing in regards to the letter you received from a Florida prisoner in January 2016, published in ULK 49 as “Prison Scares off Subscribers.” The prisoner was placed in segregation under investigation, which ey believes was due to receiving your publication Under Lock & Key. Well I’m from Western Illinois Correctional Center in Mt. Sterling, Illinois. I had received ULK 49 with no problem and yet on 15 June 2016 I received a notification from the mailroom that my recent publication of Under Lock & Key, I believe it’s probably the May/June 2016 No. 50 issue, was sent to the Publication Review Committee (PRC) for “proper handling,” with notification to follow. And yet here it is 22 June 2016, a week later, and I haven’t received the notification from the PRC and/or the May/June 2016 issue of ULK. Amazingly 2 days after receiving the notification they came and did a shake down on my cell and messed with all my material in my correspondence box and yet nothing was found. So I ask please remove me from your subscription list.

MIM(Prisons) responds: We are always disappointed to learn that prison harassment has scared a subscriber away from receiving Under Lock & Key. But these stories help to show the potential power of independent media of the oppressed. Prison administrators are afraid of this educational tool. So it is very important that everyone who is able fight back when faced with censorship of ULK, and all subscribers should be sharing their copy of the publication. You can write to us for extras if you want to share them with others. In this way we can spread the power of one copy of the publication to reach many people and help compensate for the widespread censorship we face.