MIM(Prisons) is a cell of revolutionaries serving the oppressed masses inside U.$. prisons, guided by the communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
prisoner notified us: "Incoming newsletter containing indepth information on the drug problems and values of drugs within the correctional setting which is a security issue"This was overturned
Washington Department of Corrections
Office of the Secretary
PO Box 41100, Mail Stop 41100
Olympia, WA 98504-1100
Re: Appeal of Censorship of Publication
Under Lock & Key Issue 59
File No. 18346
To Whom It May Concern:
We are in receipt of a letter from Mr. XX for the above referenced issue of Under Lock & Key (ULK). The letter indicates Issue 59 was rejected for “[i]ncoming newsletter containing indepth information on the drug problems and values of drugs within the correctional setting which is a security issue.” Currently, MIM(P) has received no notice of censorship as is required by Washington Administrative Rules and federal case law.
The limited information provided does not show a reasonably objectionable or rational basis for rejection of the publication. The information does not show any means to breach security of the institution or introduce contraband.
Due process requires adequate notice of the reasons for censorship. Instructive is the District Court’s reasoning set forth in Prison Legal News v. Jones, “Procunier demands that the publisher "be given a reasonable opportunity to protest" the censorship. Id. at 418. For an opportunity to be reasonable, the publisher must know of the grounds upon which the publication has been censored. See Henry J. Friendly, "Some Kind of Hearing", 123 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1267, 1280 (1975) (explaining that it is "fundamental" to due process that "notice be given . . . that . . . clearly inform[s] the individual of the proposed action and the grounds for it"). This knowledge component of due process does not turn on whether the publication is the first copy or a subsequent copy. What matters is the basis for censorship. If a subsequent impoundment decision is based on a different reason not previously shared with [the publisher or distributor], due process requires that [the publisher or distributor] be told of this new reason.” 126 F. Supp. 3d 1233, 1258 (N.D. Fla. 2015).
Further, failure to provide notice of this censorship does not meet the scrutiny required by the Constitution and notice with a more definite statement of the objectionable content is required.
We require the decision to censor issue 59 be vacated and delivered to Mr. XX.
Please govern yourself accordingly.
Sincerely,
MIM Distributors
01/31/2018
WA DOC responds to censor appeal
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To whom it may concern:
I'm in receipt of your two correspondences appealing the rejection of the above two notices for inmates XXX and YYY dated January 21, 2018.
Per Washington State DOC policy 450.100 all publications rejected by any DOC correctional facility will be reviewed by the Publication Review Committee at DOC Headquarters. Mail Rejection Notice number 18346 was reviewed on January 8, 2018 and was overturned by the committee. The publicaiton issue has since been forwarded to each offender. A copy of the final decision notice should be forthcoming to you from Stafford Creek Correctional Center (SCCC).
As of 12/6/2008 there has been no response to this appeal.
12/14/2008
MIM requested review of decison
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Mail Room Supervisor
Stafford Creek Corrections Center
191 CONSTANTINE WAY
Aberdeen, WA 98520-9504
14 December 2008
Dear Sir or Madam,
We recently obtained copies of a rejection notice for mail that was sent by MIM Distributors to Mr. XXXXXX XXXXXX (XXXXXX). It was regarding a copy of a newsletter published by MIM called MIM Notes. The rejection notices gave the reason for censorship as ?Over a year past publication date.? We were informed that this rule was applied to 2 issues of MIM Notes as well as an issue of the journal MIM Theory, but MIM Distributors was not notified of any of this censorship by your department as is generally required.
MIM has distributed numerous copies of MIM Theory and other literature to prisoners at Stafford Creek over the years that were published over a year prior to the mailing date and it was never a problem.
I am requesting a review of these mail restriction notices, as I believe this to be an unreasonable and overly burdensome restriction on MIM?s mail, whereas literature that was published more than a year ago is not a threat to the legitimate penological interests of the institution.
Appeal to Offender Grievance Program as advised by response to last complaint Download Documentation
03/19/2009
Grievance Program says appeal not specific in how it affects prisoner Download Documentation
06/14/2009
MIM appeal to Olympia on pattern of censorship
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Richard Morgan, Director Prisons Division
Washington Dept. of Corrections
PO Box 41100
Olympia, WA 98504-1100
14 June 2009
Dear Richard Morgan,
This letter is to follow up on correspondence that a few people receiving literature from MIM Distributors have been having with yourself and local DOC representatives. In the last eight months staff in prisons including Stafford Creek Corrections Center and Washington State Penitentiary (WSP) have begun using DOC Policy 450.100 VIII A, 2, to substantiate the censorship of literature sent by MIM, citing ?Publication over the one year limit.?
I do not know the history of this policy, but its sudden frequent use against MIM Distributors seems to ?render the regulation arbitrary or irrational? as defined in TURNER v. SAFLEY, 482 U.S. 78 (1987). MIM Distributors has distributed its MIM Theory magazines to people held by the Washington DOC for over 15 years. During that time, various staff have tried to label the materials as different forms of ?a threat to security?, but overall the department has allowed people under their control to receive these journals. Why are they suddenly deemed unacceptable on a rule that has no apparent relevance to legitimate penological interests?
When this first began happening I appealed this censorship to the Facility Superintendent of WSP, but never received a response. In addition to MIM Theory journals, portions of an essay published a hundred years ago have been censored under the ?1 year? policy in Washington State Penitentiary. Meanwhile, in January, a letter to a person being held in Stafford Creek regarding this issue was returned to us with no reason given. I provide these as examples of staff going beyond even the stated policy in DOC Policy 450.100 VIII A, 2 to censor MIM Distributors and discourage our efforts to correct the situation concerning the handling of MIM Distributors? mail.
As I wrote to the Superintendent at WSP, perhaps there is a reason for this rule that I am not seeing and it is being applied unnecessarily in regard to MIM Distributors mail? Whatever the case, I am requesting a response explaining the application of DOC Policy 450.100 VIII A, 2 to publications sent by MIM Distributors and how it is related to ?legitimate penological interests.?
Mail that is deemed to be a threat to legitimate penological objectives: "Unknown substance on magazine, appears to have been wet"[Download Documentation]
Department of Corrections
OCO Deputy Secretary
PO Box 41100
Olympia, WA 98504
10 September 2007
Dear Sir/Madam,
We received five mail rejection notices from C. Hardy at Stafford Creek Corrections Center, which stated that the rejected materials had been ?Sent to Headquarters for Review.? Therefore, we are addressing this petition to you in hopes of reversing the decision. The materials were five issues of MIM Notes, the newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (see notices enclosed).
For all of these newspapers, none of the 34 reasons for rejecting mail were checked on the rejection notice. Reasons were given in the ?Comments? section by staff member C. Hardy. Two of the issues were rejected for ?Inciting to fight the justice system.? Actually, the pages cited have a section entitled ?Join the fight against the injustice system.? The first suggestion for things to do to help is to write letters like this in an effort to put an end to the widespread censorship problems in this country. Other suggestions are book drives, petitioning and providing people with housing and jobs after their release from prison. All of this work is put in the context of a larger campaign to end the system of injustice that in MIM?s view is systematic. This point of view is a federally protected political viewpoint and none of the actions suggested in this article threaten the safety of people at SCCC in any way.
Two of the newspapers are rejected for the alleged reason that they ?refer to security threat groups.? Curiously, page 11 of Issue #261 happens to feature a long article by a prisoner in Clallam Bay in Washington about censorship and other problems. The author lists a number organizations that he has contacted regarding these matters. I don?t know if you would consider any of those groups a security threat group, but there seems to be an ulterior motive of preventing prisoners in the WA DOC from reading information that might help them fight their own censorship battles.
The second paper censored for referring to a ?security threat group? is issue #343, pg. 4. On this page there is an article that mentions MIM, the FBI and the Democratic Party. Again, it is unclear which of these groups is considered an STG by the administration. But I would argue that it is hard to pick up an issue of any major newspaper these days that does not mention groups such as al-Qaeda as part of their daily news reporting. Al-Qaeda is on the U.S. Terrorist Organization list. Yet it doesn?t seem within the Department?s mandate to maintain the safety and the security of its facilities to censor these media for mentioning such groups.
The final issue is rejected for the cited reason of, ?full frontal nude picture.? Indeed that is a factually correct description. Yet the picture is of Vietnamese children who were napalmed by the U.S. military. The context of the image is clearly political and not sexual. As per the Department?s mail policy, ?sexually explicit? must be ?intended for sexual gratification.?
We hope that in review of these matters you will deem it appropriate to allow prisoners at SCCC to receive these issues of MIM Notes.
Thank you for your consideration in this matter,
MIM Distributors
PO Box 40799
San Francisco, CA 94140
cc: Superintendent Dan Pacholke, Stafford Creek
XXXXXX XXXXXX
We received five mail rejection notices from C. Hardy at Stafford Creek Corrections Center, which stated that the rejected materials had been ?Sent to Headquarters for Review.? Therefore, we are addressing this petition to you in hopes of reversing the decision. The materials were five issues of MIM Notes, the newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (see notices enclosed).
For all of these newspapers, none of the 34 reasons for rejecting mail were checked on the rejection notice. Reasons were given in the ?Comments? section by staff member C. Hardy. Two of the issues were rejected for ?Inciting to fight the justice system.? Actually, the pages cited have a section entitled ?Join the fight against the injustice system.? The first suggestion for things to do to help is to write letters like this in an effort to put an end to the widespread censorship problems in this country. Other suggestions are book drives, petitioning and providing people with housing and jobs after their release from prison. All of this work is put in the context of a larger campaign to end the system of injustice that in MIM?s view is systematic. This point of view is a federally protected political viewpoint and none of the actions suggested in this article threaten the safety of people at SCCC in any way.
Two of the newspapers are rejected for the alleged reason that they ?refer to security threat groups.? Curiously, page 11 of Issue #261 happens to feature a long article by a prisoner in Clallam Bay in Washington about censorship and other problems. The author lists a number organizations that he has contacted regarding these matters. I don?t know if you would consider any of those groups a security threat group, but there seems to be an ulterior motive of preventing prisoners in the WA DOC from reading information that might help them fight their own censorship battles.
The second paper censored for referring to a ?security threat group? is issue #343, pg. 4. On this page there is an article that mentions MIM, the FBI and the Democratic Party. Again, it is unclear which of these groups is considered an STG by the administration. But I would argue that it is hard to pick up an issue of any major newspaper these days that does not mention groups such as al-Qaeda as part of their daily news reporting. Al-Qaeda is on the U.S. Terrorist Organization list. Yet it doesn?t seem within the Department?s mandate to maintain the safety and the security of its facilities to censor these media for mentioning such groups.
The final issue is rejected for the cited reason of, ?full frontal nude picture.? Indeed that is a factually correct description. Yet the picture is of Vietnamese children who were napalmed by the U.S. military. The context of the image is clearly political and not sexual. As per the Department?s mail policy, ?sexually explicit? must be ?intended for sexual gratification.?
We hope that in review of these matters you will deem it appropriate to allow prisoners at SCCC to receive these issues of MIM Notes.
Thank you for your consideration in this matter,
MIM Distributors
PO Box 40799
San Francisco, CA 94140
cc: Superintendent Dan Pacholke, Stafford Creek
XXXXXX XXXXXX
We received five mail rejection notices from C. Hardy at Stafford Creek Corrections Center, which stated that the rejected materials had been ?Sent to Headquarters for Review.? Therefore, we are addressing this petition to you in hopes of reversing the decision. The materials were five issues of MIM Notes, the newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (see notices enclosed).
For all of these newspapers, none of the 34 reasons for rejecting mail were checked on the rejection notice. Reasons were given in the ?Comments? section by staff member C. Hardy. Two of the issues were rejected for ?Inciting to fight the justice system.? Actually, the pages cited have a section entitled ?Join the fight against the injustice system.? The first suggestion for things to do to help is to write letters like this in an effort to put an end to the widespread censorship problems in this country. Other suggestions are book drives, petitioning and providing people with housing and jobs after their release from prison. All of this work is put in the context of a larger campaign to end the system of injustice that in MIM?s view is systematic. This point of view is a federally protected political viewpoint and none of the actions suggested in this article threaten the safety of people at SCCC in any way.
Two of the newspapers are rejected for the alleged reason that they ?refer to security threat groups.? Curiously, page 11 of Issue #261 happens to feature a long article by a prisoner in Clallam Bay in Washington about censorship and other problems. The author lists a number organizations that he has contacted regarding these matters. I don?t know if you would consider any of those groups a security threat group, but there seems to be an ulterior motive of preventing prisoners in the WA DOC from reading information that might help them fight their own censorship battles.
The second paper censored for referring to a ?security threat group? is issue #343, pg. 4. On this page there is an article that mentions MIM, the FBI and the Democratic Party. Again, it is unclear which of these groups is considered an STG by the administration. But I would argue that it is hard to pick up an issue of any major newspaper these days that does not mention groups such as al-Qaeda as part of their daily news reporting. Al-Qaeda is on the U.S. Terrorist Organization list. Yet it doesn?t seem within the Department?s mandate to maintain the safety and the security of its facilities to censor these media for mentioning such groups.
The final issue is rejected for the cited reason of, ?full frontal nude picture.? Indeed that is a factually correct description. Yet the picture is of Vietnamese children who were napalmed by the U.S. military. The context of the image is clearly political and not sexual. As per the Department?s mail policy, ?sexually explicit? must be ?intended for sexual gratification.?
We hope that in review of these matters you will deem it appropriate to allow prisoners at SCCC to receive these issues of MIM Notes.
Thank you for your consideration in this matter,
MIM Distributors
PO Box 40799
San Francisco, CA 94140
cc: Superintendent Dan Pacholke, Stafford Creek
XXXXXX XXXXXX
We received five mail rejection notices from C. Hardy at Stafford Creek Corrections Center, which stated that the rejected materials had been ?Sent to Headquarters for Review.? Therefore, we are addressing this petition to you in hopes of reversing the decision. The materials were five issues of MIM Notes, the newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (see notices enclosed).
For all of these newspapers, none of the 34 reasons for rejecting mail were checked on the rejection notice. Reasons were given in the ?Comments? section by staff member C. Hardy. Two of the issues were rejected for ?Inciting to fight the justice system.? Actually, the pages cited have a section entitled ?Join the fight against the injustice system.? The first suggestion for things to do to help is to write letters like this in an effort to put an end to the widespread censorship problems in this country. Other suggestions are book drives, petitioning and providing people with housing and jobs after their release from prison. All of this work is put in the context of a larger campaign to end the system of injustice that in MIM?s view is systematic. This point of view is a federally protected political viewpoint and none of the actions suggested in this article threaten the safety of people at SCCC in any way.
Two of the newspapers are rejected for the alleged reason that they ?refer to security threat groups.? Curiously, page 11 of Issue #261 happens to feature a long article by a prisoner in Clallam Bay in Washington about censorship and other problems. The author lists a number organizations that he has contacted regarding these matters. I don?t know if you would consider any of those groups a security threat group, but there seems to be an ulterior motive of preventing prisoners in the WA DOC from reading information that might help them fight their own censorship battles.
The second paper censored for referring to a ?security threat group? is issue #343, pg. 4. On this page there is an article that mentions MIM, the FBI and the Democratic Party. Again, it is unclear which of these groups is considered an STG by the administration. But I would argue that it is hard to pick up an issue of any major newspaper these days that does not mention groups such as al-Qaeda as part of their daily news reporting. Al-Qaeda is on the U.S. Terrorist Organization list. Yet it doesn?t seem within the Department?s mandate to maintain the safety and the security of its facilities to censor these media for mentioning such groups.
The final issue is rejected for the cited reason of, ?full frontal nude picture.? Indeed that is a factually correct description. Yet the picture is of Vietnamese children who were napalmed by the U.S. military. The context of the image is clearly political and not sexual. As per the Department?s mail policy, ?sexually explicit? must be ?intended for sexual gratification.?
We hope that in review of these matters you will deem it appropriate to allow prisoners at SCCC to receive these issues of MIM Notes.
Thank you for your consideration in this matter,
MIM Distributors
PO Box 40799
San Francisco, CA 94140
cc: Superintendent Dan Pacholke, Stafford Creek
XXXXXX XXXXXX
We received five mail rejection notices from C. Hardy at Stafford Creek Corrections Center, which stated that the rejected materials had been ?Sent to Headquarters for Review.? Therefore, we are addressing this petition to you in hopes of reversing the decision. The materials were five issues of MIM Notes, the newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (see notices enclosed).
For all of these newspapers, none of the 34 reasons for rejecting mail were checked on the rejection notice. Reasons were given in the ?Comments? section by staff member C. Hardy. Two of the issues were rejected for ?Inciting to fight the justice system.? Actually, the pages cited have a section entitled ?Join the fight against the injustice system.? The first suggestion for things to do to help is to write letters like this in an effort to put an end to the widespread censorship problems in this country. Other suggestions are book drives, petitioning and providing people with housing and jobs after their release from prison. All of this work is put in the context of a larger campaign to end the system of injustice that in MIM?s view is systematic. This point of view is a federally protected political viewpoint and none of the actions suggested in this article threaten the safety of people at SCCC in any way.
Two of the newspapers are rejected for the alleged reason that they ?refer to security threat groups.? Curiously, page 11 of Issue #261 happens to feature a long article by a prisoner in Clallam Bay in Washington about censorship and other problems. The author lists a number organizations that he has contacted regarding these matters. I don?t know if you would consider any of those groups a security threat group, but there seems to be an ulterior motive of preventing prisoners in the WA DOC from reading information that might help them fight their own censorship battles.
The second paper censored for referring to a ?security threat group? is issue #343, pg. 4. On this page there is an article that mentions MIM, the FBI and the Democratic Party. Again, it is unclear which of these groups is considered an STG by the administration. But I would argue that it is hard to pick up an issue of any major newspaper these days that does not mention groups such as al-Qaeda as part of their daily news reporting. Al-Qaeda is on the U.S. Terrorist Organization list. Yet it doesn?t seem within the Department?s mandate to maintain the safety and the security of its facilities to censor these media for mentioning such groups.
The final issue is rejected for the cited reason of, ?full frontal nude picture.? Indeed that is a factually correct description. Yet the picture is of Vietnamese children who were napalmed by the U.S. military. The context of the image is clearly political and not sexual. As per the Department?s mail policy, ?sexually explicit? must be ?intended for sexual gratification.?
We hope that in review of these matters you will deem it appropriate to allow prisoners at SCCC to receive these issues of MIM Notes.
Thank you for your consideration in this matter,
MIM Distributors
PO Box 40799
San Francisco, CA 94140
cc: Superintendent Dan Pacholke, Stafford Creek
XXXXXX XXXXXX
