Tracking Prison Censorship in the United States

Today I received a rejectio notice for ULK 50, for the "Legacy and Lib" article. The reasons they cite are: "Entire tone of paper seeks to gain opinions/actions against the criminal justice system. Encourages/uses derogatory remarks against law enforcement in statements such as 'pigs' and 'fuck the police' (pages 4 & 8). This paper also calling for "organized" strikes/movements against the prison system. Pages 17 & 18."

As you see, there are no credible armed or violent threats mentioned in the reasons cited for rejection. Instead they vaguely talk about "movements" and "opinions" against the criminal injustice system. I believe these are thinly veiled politically-motivated actions. They should be addressed.

Superintendent: Jeffrey A. Uttecht
Coyote Ridge Corrections Center
1301 N Ephrata Ave
PO Box 769
Connell, WA 99326

June 25, 2016

RE: Ongoing illegal censorship to xxx at Coyote Ridge Corrections Center, no notification to sender

Dear Superintendent,

We received your letter from April 21, 2016. Thank you for your response.

One of our complaints from our April 14 letter was that the sender (MIM Distributors) was not notified of the censorship of the above named book to the above named prisoner. In your letter from April 21, you state “a mail rejection was generated and sent to the offender and to the sender (MIM) as is evident with the attached exhibits A and B.” Yet your letter did not include any attachments. We still contend that we never were sent a rejection notice from your facility.

Additionally, we were recently informed that Under Lock & Key No. 50 (May/June 2016) was censored at Coyote Ridge Corrections Center. Yet we have not received notification of this censorship. You were already made aware of this problem of lack of notification in our letter to you from April 2016. That your mailroom is still violating constitutional and state law, as well as your own department's policies, is grounds for filing a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 lawsuit.

Some facilities send their rejection notices via Certified Mail with the USPS. I would recommend to do this with your mail. Also someone should double-check your letters to ensure the attachments you intend to send in fact are included with your outgoing mail.

We look forward to your response and the remedy of this problem at Coyote Ridge Corrections Center.

Sincerely,

, Legal Assistant
MIM Distributors
PO Box 40799
San Francisco, CA 94140

CC: Affected parties
Publication Review Committee
C/O Department of Corrections Correspondence Unit
PO Box 41118
Olympia, WA 98504-1118

Publication Review Committee
C/O Department of Corrections Correspondence Unit
PO Box 41118
Olympia, WA 98504-1118

June 25, 2016

RE: Ongoing illegal censorship of at Coyote Ridge Corrections Center

Dear Publication Review Committee,

On April 14, 2016, CC'ed your office on a letter to Superintendent Uttecht of Coyote Ridge Corrections Center. We did not receive a response from your office to this letter, even though it contained information directly pertaining to your office.

I am writing to you with three concerns.

1. What is the status of the censorship of the book Chican@ Power and the Struggle for Aztlan? This book was mailed to Mr. xxx in October 2015. Superintendent Uttecht informed us that it is presently being reviewed by the Publication Review Committee. What is the status of this review?

2. There is ongoing illegal censorship at Coyote Ridge Corrections Center. In April 2016 we informed Superintendent Uttecht that we (MIM Distributors, the publisher and sender of this book) were not notified of the censorship of Chican@ Power and the Struggle for Aztlan when it was censored by Coyote Ridge mailroom staff. Superintendent Uttecht's response was to write a letter saying the proof of notifiying the sender was attached, yet failed to enclose any attachments with his letter to us.

There was recently another similar incident at Coyote Ridge Corrections Center. A publication titled Under Lock & Key No. 50 (May/June 2016) was censored in this facility. The intended recipient was Mr. xxx. MIM Distributors was not notified by the facility mailroom that this newsletter was being censored. We only heard about it from the prisoner.

There are no doubt countless other incidents of censorship that were not carried out in line with constitutional and state law, or DOC procedures. Unfortunately since we are not being notified by the facility of these incidents, we have no way of knowing how many have occurred.

3. The reason cited for the censorship of Under Lock & Key No. 50 (May/June 2016) is unfounded and also an illegal reason for censorship. An intended recipient of this newsletter informed us, the sender, of the reason provided by CRCC mailroom staff for this censorship. The reason given was “Entire tone of paper seeks to gain opinions/actions against the criminal justice system. Encourages/uses derogatory remarks against law enforcement in statements such as 'pigs' and 'fuck the police' (Pages 4 & 8). This paper also calling for 'organized; strikes/movements against the prison system. Pages 17 & 18.” We apologize if this reason cited is inaccurate. Unfortunately it has been provided to us by a third party, since we were not notified of the censorship as I explained above.

As you can see, the “reasons” cited for censorship of Under Lock & Key No. 50 are vague and not directly related to the penological interests of the institution. We believe there is much relevant case law to support our claim that this publication is being censored for political reasons, in direct opposition to protections of the United States Constitution.

"Wardens may not reject a publication 'solely because its content is religious, philosophical, political, social[,] sexual, or . . . unpopular or repugnant,' or establish an excluded list of publications, but must review each issue of a subscription separately." Thornburgh v. Abbott, 490 U.S. 401

“When a prison regulation restricts a prisoner’s First Amendment right to free speech, it is valid only if it is reasonably related to legitimate penological interests.” Lindell v. Frank, 377 F.3d 655, 657 (7th Cir. 2004), citing Turner v. Safely, 482 U.S. 78, 89 (1987).

"Prison authorities cannot rely on general or conclusory assertions to support their policies." Walker v. Sumner (9th Cir. 1990) 917 F.2d 382, 385

"Unsupported security claims couldn't justify infringement on First Amendment rights." Crofton v. Roe (9th Cir. 1999) 170 F.3d 957

We look forward to your response.

Sincerely,


MIM Distributors
PO Box 40799
San Francisco, CA 94140

CC: Affected parties
Superintendent: Jeffrey A. Uttecht
Coyote Ridge Corrections Center
1301 N Ephrata Ave
PO Box 769
Connell, WA 99326