Tracking Prison Censorship in the United States

Kim (Chris) Southerland, Regional Director
Northern Florida Region Office
P. O. Box 718
Lake Butler, Florida

27 March 2012

RE: Censorship incident at Florida State Prison -- exclusion of publication sent from MIM Distributors to Mr. xxx

Dear Regional Director Southerland,

I am writing this letter about a censorship incident that recently occurred at Florida State Prison (FSP). MIM Distributors sent the above named prisoner Under Lock & Key No. 24 (January/February 2012). We mailed the newsletter to Mr. xxx via Standard Mail with the United States Post Office, on January 30, 2012.

Mr. xxx recently informed us that he never received the publication, and sent us a Notice of Rejection or Impoundment of Publications. MIM Distributors did not receive a Notice of Rejection from FSP Mailroom Staff.

Florida Administrative Code states at sections 33-501.401 that both the prisoner and the publisher have to be notified of negative determinations and entitles both the sender and the recipient to appeal rejections of publications and letters.

As you are certainly aware of, the U.S. Supreme Court has clearly stated that 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 and with the cited Florida Administrative Code rule, neither the prisoner, nor MIM Distributors were notified of the censorship decision or actually of any decisions that the Mailroom staff has made with regard to the publication sent to Mr. Johnson.

In refusing to provide notice and an opportunity to be heard to both the prisoner 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:
1. to know whether or not a censorship determination has been made on the above named publication;
2. to be offered a chance to appeal the exclusion of our materials;
3. to be afforded due process rights as outlined in Florida Administrative Code on any future rejection or impoundment of publications from MIM Distributors; and
4. that adequate notice be provided to the prisoner as to the censorship determination of this publication.

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

Sincerely,

MIM Distributors
PO Box 40799
San Francisco, CA 94140

CC: Affected parties

Steven F. Singer, Warden
Florida State Prison
7819 NW 228th Street
Raiford, FL 32026-1000