Tracking Prison Censorship in the United States

Director Charles L. Ryan
Arizona Department of Corrections
1601 W. Jefferson
Phoenix, AZ 85007

January 4, 2012

RE: Censorship incident occurred at ASPC Winslow ? Kaibab Unit; exclusion of publications sent to inmate Mr. XXX by MIM Distributors.

Dear Director Ryan,

I am writing this letter about what seems to be a censorship incident that recently occurred in ASPC Winslow ? Kaibab Unit.

MIM Distributors sent the above mentioned inmate three different issue of a publication titled Under Lock and Key. Precisely MIM Distributors sent Mr. XXX:
❖ Under lock and Key, issue 21 on 07/28/2011
❖ Under lock and Key, issue 22 on 09/21/2011
❖ Under lock and Key, issue 23 on 11/18/2011

We recently learned from the prisoner that he never received any of those publications. Nor did he receive any determination of your Department explaining whether and why the publications were censored. MIM Distributors didn?t receive any notice of censorship determination either.

Your Department Order no. 914 states at section 914.02 par. 1.13 that ?Excluding holidays and weekends, incoming mail shall not be held and shall be delivered within 24 hours unless circumstances make delivery impractical.?

The same Order no. 914 also states that incoming publications may be held only if they are subject to review; in this case, though, prompt notice shall be given to the prisoner, according to the review process established by section 914.09 of the Department Order, which also entitles the prisoner to appeal censorship determinations.

Both the sender and the prisoner have a right, under the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, to receive notice and an opportunity to be heard when prison administrators or staff prevent the sender?s expressive materials from reaching their intended recipients (Procunier v. Martinez, 416 U.S.396. 94 S.Ct 1800, as reaffirmed on the point by Turner V. Safley, 482 U.S. 78 (1987) and Thornburgh v. Abbott, 490 U.S. 401 (1989) and Montcalm Publ'g Corp. v. Beck, 80 F.3d 105, 106 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 928 (1996)). In plain and striking contradiction with these principles, neither Mr. XXX, nor MIM Distributors were notified of the censorship decision.

In refusing to provide notice and an opportunity to be heard to both the prisoner (Mr. XXX) and the publisher (MIM Distributors), under local policies and/or practices, prison administrators and staff violated clearly established constitutional law and acted under color of state law for purposes of 42 U.S.C. ? 1983.

With the present letter, MIM Distributors requests to be notified of the reasons of the censorship decision and to be offered a chance to appeal the exclusion of its materials and/or letter.

We appreciate your assistance in this matter and look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

MIM Distributors


CC: Affected parties

Any time that a publication is excluded, the prison's mail and property room staff must notify the inmate, by a memorandum issues by the division of Director's office/program services, located at the Department of Corrections in Phoenix, Arizona. In my individual case, correctional officers are either throwing away, giving away to another prisoner, or returning subject newsletter to sender.

The reason why i didn't receive any notice of exclusion or censorship, which falls under Department Order #914.02, 1.13, 914.09, is because the publication (ULK) isn't excluded! There are certain correctional staff who work at this prison unit that have a personal problem with my political beliefs. Thus, three (3) issues of my ULK met with foul play!