Tracking Prison Censorship in the United States

Senior Warden Chuck Biscoe
Beto Unit
1391 FM 3328
Tennessee Colony, TX 75880

2 April 2010

Dear Warden Biscoe,

This letter is regarding the censorship of several letters from MIM Distributors to prisoners held at Beto Unit. Mr. AAA and Mr. BBB have had letters denied delivery to them including the publication Under Lock & Key and a guide to fighting censorship that MIM Distributors sends out. The censorship guide encourages prisoners to use legal means of fighting censorship, including filing grievances, appealing them, and taking the case to court if necessary. There is no valid or legal reason these letters or publications should be censored.

We would like to bring it to your attention that your mailroom staff is not correctly applying TDCJ policy to these materials, including the absence of notification to the prisoners or MIM Distributors that the letters have been denied, and why. Occasionally "need DC#" will be written on the envelope when it is returned, but when we check the prisoner's DC# on the TDCJ website, it is accurate.

With this letter we request (1) that an investigation be made into why mail from MIM Distributors is censored from Mr. AAA and Mr. BBB, and possibly others. We also request (2) that your mailroom staff at Beto Unit be retrained to notify the senders and intended recipients of mail be notified when and why it is denied, as per law. Lastly, we request (3) that mail from mailroom staff stop tampering with correspondences between MIM Distributors and prisoners at Beto Unit, as it is their right to communicate with us.

We appreciate your assistance and look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

MIM Distributors

CC: Affected parties