Tracking Prison Censorship in the United States

Director S.A. Godinez
Illinois Department of Corrections Illinois Department of Corrections
1301 Concordia Court James R. Thompson Center
P.O. Box 19277 100 West Randolph
Springfield, IL 62794-9277 Chicago, IL 60601

March 25, 2014

RE: Illegal censorship of mail at Hill Correctional Center and Sheridan Correctional Center

Dear Director Godinez,

This letter is regarding the illegal censorship if mail at Hill Correctional Center and Sheridan Correctional Center. Enclosed are letters I have sent to the Wardens and Publication Review Committee at these respective facilities. We have not received responses from administrators at the facilities themselves, and hope that your office can help end their illegal practice of censoring mail without cause or process.

Do not hesitate to contact me if you need further information.

Sincerely,

MIM Distributors


CC: Affected parties

Publication Review Committee
600 South Linwood Road
P.O. Box 1327
Galesburg, IL 61402

March 25, 2014

RE: Illegal censorship of mail to Mr. x

Dear PRC,

This letter is regarding the illegal censorship if mail to Mr. x, a prisoner housed at Hill Correctional Center. On February 16, 2014, MIM Distributors mailed Mr x an envelope via Media Mail with the USPS. This envelope contained at least one spiral-bound book, among others. The envelope was returned, unopened, to MIM Distributors with "Spiral bound book" written on the outside. We were not sent a Publication Receipt and Course of Action Form DOC0211 regarding this incident.

In Title 20: Corrections, Criminal Justice, and Law Enforcement, Chapter I: Department of Corrections, Subchapter e: Operations, Part 525 Rights and Privileges, there is no mention made of spiral bound books and whether they shall be permitted or censored. The instructions that are provided in Title 20 for handling of this material are in direct conflict with the actions of the Mailroom staff at Hill Correctional Center.

Your Administrative Code Title 20, Part 525 Rights and Privileges, Section 525.140 Incoming Mail at point d) that "All incoming non-privileged mail, including mail from clerks of courts, shall be opened and inspected for contraband."
and at point h), "When an offender is prohibited from receiving a letter or portions thereof, the committed person and the sender shall be notified in writing of the decision."

As you are likely aware, the U.S. Supreme Court also 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, neither the prisoners, nor MIM Distributors were notified of the censorship decision or actually of any decisions that the Mailroom staff has made with regard to the letter in question.

In refusing to provide notice and an opportunity to be heard to both the prisoner and the sender, 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.

Please provide us with a copy of the administrative code that dictates spiral bound books should be disallowed at Hill Correctional Center. We would appreciate if you took any necessary, appropriate and advisable measure (such as internal investigations, proper employees? training and similar) to stop this illegal ban on all mail coming from MIM Distributors, and start determining the allowance of mail based on Illinois Department of Corrections policy, not superfluous, illegal restrictions.

Sincerely,

MIM Distributors


CC: Affected parties
Kevwe Akpore, Warden

Robert Schisler
Publication Review Officer
Hill Correctional Center
600 Linwood Rd
PO Box 1327
Galesburg, IL 61401

25 June 2007

Dear Mr. Schisler:


We have received another censorship notice from your office stating the same reasons as last time. This was for the The Party Bulletin Issue #3, sent to Mr. XXXXXX XXXXXX (#XXXXXX). We are enclosing the same arguments that we provided in our last letter in case you did not receive them. If we do not receive a letter from you reversing this decision then we will take that to mean that you will continue to openly violate our First Amendment rights to political beliefs and affiliations. We are in the process of further investigating the mailroom policies and legalities of such at your institution. We will be contacting you regarding those findings if we do not hear from you first.

The reasons given for this censorship include:

1) Depict, describe, or encourage activities that may lead to the use of physical violence or group disruption or it facilitates organizational activity without approval of the Chief Administrative Officer.

2) Advocate or encourage violence, hatred, or group disruption or it poses an intolerable risk of violence or disruption.

3) Encourage or instruct in the commission of criminal activity.

4) Be otherwise detrimental to security, good order, rehabilitation, or discipline or it might facilitate criminal activity or be detrimental to mental health.

5) Pamphlet advocates revolution.

Let me take this opportunity to dispute these 5 claims. The first part of point 1 is unfounded, in that the Party Bulletin never advocates violence or group disruption at Hill Correctional Center or any other prison. On the contrary, we explicitly work to discourage the tendencies to react violently to the prison environment among our prisoner readership. As far as facilitating unapproved organizational activity, we have made no efforts to help prisoners anywhere in Illinois form organizations. If we were to do so in the future, we would certainly advise such organizations to follow the relevant rules and regulations of the institutions in doing so.

Point 2 is completely unfounded. Nowhere does the Party Bulletin encourage violence. Our Party stands for an end to violence and oppression.

Point 3 is completely unfounded. Nowhere does the Party Bulletin instruct anyone to commit criminal activity. On page 13 of Issue 2 the Party Bulletin expressly criticizes New Afrikans for engaging in criminal activity. Our work is focused on getting people out of prison and keeping them out by putting their energy into building positive institutions within the community rather than engaging in activities that are destructive to the community.

Point 4 seems to be a catch all that is just reinforcing ideas I have addressed above. The Party Bulletin discourages criminal behavior, explicitly discourages prisoners from breaking the rules in prison and our Party spends a large amount of our resources helping to promote rehabilitation of current and former prisoners. The results of these efforts can be witnessed in prisoners that are affiliated with us who are consistently disciplined young men who avoid trouble with staff and prisoners and promote these ideals among fellow prisoners.

The Comments section seems to expose the real reasoning behind the decision to reject our publication, that it ?advocates revolution.? Fortunately for us, the First Amendment protects our human rights to believe in any political ideology that we choose and to advocate those beliefs. This includes our rights to affiliate with other people and organizations that share these ideas. In Procunier v. Martinez, the Supreme Court upheld the right of prisoners to receive mail from outside organizations regardless of the opinions of prison staff of those organizations or their ideas.

Upon further review you will find that we do not promote violence or criminal behavior in any of our publications. Therefore it is illegal to censor our communications with Mr. XXXXXX or any of our efforts to promote our beliefs among the prisoners at your institution.

In light of the above, we respectfully request that the Party Bulletin be released to Mr. XXXXXX and that the censorship of our materials at Hill CC ceases.

Thank you for your consideration in this matter,

New Afrikan Maoist Party