Not many people understand what censorship is. They may have a vague
concept based on the albums sold at Wal-Mart that block out cuss words,
but they have no clue as to how deep censorship really goes.
And that’s mostly because of the censorship in and of itself. You can’t
hear about what is suppressed. And this has been happening ever since
words were created.
I am currently dealing with illegal censorship of at least three
publications. Each of them has a few different things in common. One:
They are all free to prisoners. Two: They are all political news
oriented. Three: They are all against the prison industrial complex in
any of its forms. Four: They are all being sent to a prisoner who has
filed a Civil Suit against the Minnesota Department of Corrections:
Myself.
This all started after I filed under the 42 § 1983 for guards messing me
up in my last facility. All of my legal mail was opened outside of my
presence before being given to me. Then they started refusing to send
out mail seeking counsel to national organizations if it was in a sealed
envelope. I had a stack of over 30 envelopes that clearly indicated that
they were legal correspondence. So I went through the chain of command,
and anyone who’s ever dealt with that already knows the outcome of the
subsequent grievance & grievance appeal: staff denied all
wrongdoing.
See, I’m not stupid. I have all the DOC Policy in my cell. I keep a full
legal bin of State and Federal Law along with citations of case
decisions. And even when I showed these fools every piece of where they
violated not only their own policy, but Minnesota and United $tates Law,
they only had this to say: “Well, if I have to go to Court, I guess I
will.” That was the Discipline Sgt. Glen Lissowy as I showed him all of
the evidence.
So after proving that the internal grievance system was completely
useless, I filed a Civil Action in the District Court, only for the
Judge Gregory G. Galler to deem it frivolous, and that I did not state a
legal claim. Two months go by, and then I receive a notice that I am
receiving a discipline for lying/misrepresentation. I was literally
getting punished for filing a lawsuit against the DOC. Under Minnesota
Law, this is only permissible if you lied, or filed a malicious lawsuit.
I did neither; you figure that one out.
After that bit of nonsense, I received another astonishing piece of
mail. A Non-Delivery Notice stating that the newspaper The
Abolitionist was being censored due to it allegedly constituting a
risk to the safety and security of the facility, with no further
explanation. Again, I know the policy, and so I filed an appeal, which
was to be forwarded to the Correspondence Review Authority (CRA). But,
instead of following Policy, the Mailroom Lead Worker Natalie Leseman,
responded to the appeal.
So I had to go up to her supervisor, Lt. Jason R. Hills, and cite the
Policy and the Law only for him to also not follow policy and to reply
to the appeal rather than forward it to the CRA. So finally, I had to
mail it to the damn CRA myself. Anyone want to hazard a guess as to
their response?
The Correspondence Review Authority, comprised of Chris Pawelk-AWO,
Sherlinda Wheeler-AWA, and Byron Matthews-Captain, stated that they had
read the material and determined the content should be denied for
violating MN DOC Division Directive 301.030 Contraband because one of
the articles allegedly advocates for organized disturbances within
prison walls and activities in violation of facility rules.
Obviously, we all know this is not adequate to legally censor material,
plus, it’s complete bullshit. So I used the second appeal and sent it to
the Assistant Commissioner of Corrections, Nate Knutson. Confusingly,
his reply was that the newspaper had a graphic depiction of violence and
that that was why it had been denied.
While this was taking place, I received another Notice of Non-Delivery
for a publication from MIM Distributors in San Francisco, CA alleging it
was a “Risk to Safety & Security of Facility.” And again no further
explanation was given. So I began the whole process anew. And again, Lt.
Jason R. Hills failed to forward the appeal. And then the CRA failed to
respond within the time permitted by Policy, and I am still awaiting
word back from Nate Knutson.
The CRA did finally reply 15 days late, saying literally nothing of
substance. And now I am awaiting to be approved to proceed In Forma
Pauperis for a Civil Action against these poohbahs again.
But all this goes to show the lengths to which those who seek to oppress
those with differing views, or who are in opposition, are willing to go.
These people are willing to stake their livelihoods on performing
illegal acts to people in prison, just to shut us up. And 90% of the
time, they succeed.
When there are no witnesses, and no one to speak out, this type of thing
goes unnoticed, and unpunished. You know they say absolute authority
corrupts absolutely. If I can suppress your voice, your mail, your
movements, your very life, no one will notice until you’re gone for
good. Censorship is men playing god, and you’re only hearing about it
because it was allowed to be said. Let that sink in.
MIM(Prisons) responds: Much respect to this comrade for all eir
work fighting the censorship in eir prison. The other reason you are
hearing about this censorship case is because of the independent
newspaper and website run by MIM(Prisons). You won’t read about this
stuff in the mainstream press. This underscores the importance of these
independent institutions.
