The Maoist Internationalist Movement P.O. Box 3576 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-3576 Dear Prison Comrade, You are receiving this letter because materials--either the newsletter MIM Notes or other political books or propaganda--that were mailed to you were censored in whole or in part by the prison authorities. MIM campaigns to pursue both political and some legal remedies to the blackout. While we have no illusions that prisons can be fundamentally reformed so long as they remain under control of the capitalist state, we believe we may be able to score some short-term victories with this anti-censorship work which will make it easier to do revolutionary work in prison. We want to choose winnable battles and focus on cases where public opinion about prisons and prisoners can be raised, especially where it hurts the image of the prisons and the United States generally. In this, we need your help. Send us details and current news. Many of you have written and/or sent us documents. This is an immense help as it focuses MIM on the correct bureaucrats and keepers. The better informed you can make the Party, the more accurately we can strike. So if you are aware of new cases of censorship, other organizations or materials that are censored or other limitations that the institution puts on politics, please write us. Write articles for MIM Notes. Although you may not be able to receive the paper, many other comrades still do. It still contributes to the struggle to have prisoners write about prison conditions--including censorship--or the outside world to read. Suggest possible solutions. You are the best informed about the political position of the gulag and know best what pressures your keepers will respond to. That is information that MIM's anti-censorship campaign will rely upon. Send names and phone numbers of people and groups from the outside. Perhaps you know of other organizations which have been censored at your prison or other individuals (friends, family members, lawyers, political allies) who would be willing to pressure the institution to admit political mail. This information will make the campaign a broad alliance. Send us your thoughts on the role censorship plays in Amerika generally--not just in the prisons. Have you seen other examples of censorship on the outside? Why do most people still believe that Amerika guarantees the "right" of free speech to all? It is useful to broaden our analysis of this issue, to help people see the censorship that goes on right in front of their eyes as well as that which goes on behind the walls. So keep the news of the gulag coming. We'll keep you posted on our progress. In struggle, MIM How to fight prison censorship: A guide for prisoners Prisons in Amerika exist as institutions of oppression with more resources than progressives currently have. The courts are also on the side of the oppressors and the criminal injustice system serves imperialism. With this in mind, it is easy to see why it is hard for progressives to win court battles, and why it is particularly hard for prisoners to win. But based on experience, MIM still considers legal battles to be potentially winnable and we are distributing this resource guide because we know that some cases have been won by prisoners who have done the necessary research and leg work. With that said, we recognize that the only way to destroy imperialism is through revolution and we encourage our comrades in prison to work with us in more than just legal struggles. If your subscription to MIM Notes, or other literature or letters sent to you in prison is being censored, this guide is written to help you. There are not enough progressive lawyers working with us to help everyone fight these battles, but as a prisoner you have the information and resources you need to fight censorship on your own. If you are not already educated about the law and court battles, you will need to do a lot of research, but this is a worthwhile cause and if you win this battle you will be helping both yourself and other prisoners. First step: Find out why your literature is being censored The prison administration has to tell you why they are withholding your mail. Insist that they tell you what regulation, statute or law your mail violates. They have to detail specifically how your mail violates the rules. Once you have this information, look up the regulation they claim you are violating. Violations could be of several types: prison regulations, state regulations, federal regulations, or constitutional law. There is a Federal code of regulations book and a State code of regulations book that you should be able to reference in your law library. One note on regulations: There is a regulation in all prisons that says prisons can censor material if they have a "legitimate security interest." Many censorship cases of MIM Notes involve fighting prisoncrats who have defined MIM Notes as a security threat. We need to push them to explain this and we need to fight this classification. If you are not experienced in using the library or if you are intimidated by doing this research on your own, now is the time to try to find legal help. If there are jailhouse lawyers in your prison, ask them for help. If you have your own lawyer, go to him or her, or try to find a friendly lawyer who will help out. We encourage you to learn to do this research for yourself even if you don't have any past experience; it will serve you well in the future. Overcoming intimidation about the legal research may be difficult at first, but it does not take any special knowledge or education to learn how to fight your own legal battles and we have many comrades who serve as inspirations having trained themselves as jailhouse lawyers from scratch. Everyone planning on doing legal research should check out the Prisoners Self Help Litigation Manual if it is in your prison's legal library. This is the BEST resource for prisoners and has general sections on research as well as more specifics on fighting legal battles. Read all sections in this manual that are relevant to you. (If this is not in your library, prisoners can buy it for $29.95 (includes postage and handling); non-prisoners $39.95 plus p & h; Oceana Publications, Inc., 75 Main Street, Dobbs Ferry, NY 10522, (914) 693-1320. Second step: Research relevant case law At this point you need to search for relevant cases or laws regarding the regulation the prison claims you are violating that would support your claim that the prison is wrong. If your case goes to court you will have to decide whether to file in federal or state court (see below), but at this point you should research both federal and state case law. The following are some of the best resources: 1. Prisoners Litigation Manual: This has federal case law. 2. Federal Practice Digest 4th edition. Go to "P" for prisons. Look for information on censorship. This will give info on cases already decided on this issue. This digest will refer you to Federal books for more information on the cited cases 3. Shepards Citation: similar to above, gives info on federal cases relevant to your topic. 4. CJS: National digest of law. Lists federal cases relevant to your topic. 5. American Jurisprudence: similar to CJS. 6. State digest: This would be named the California digest or the Massachusetts digest or whatever your state's name is. Go to "prisons" and check out relevant state cases. Third step: Exhaust all possible remedies within the system The next thing you have to do is exhaust all possible remedies within the system. It is important that later you are able to demonstrate that you tried to go through these channels before taking the case to court. This means you have to follow the grievance procedure in your prison or write to the relevant authorities. When you write up your grievance you want to make an argument about why the regulation the prison claims your mail violates does not apply to you. Citing other cases that support your argument about this regulation is a good thing to do too. Be sure you keep copies of everything! Fourth step: Decide where to file your case You need to decide whether to file your case in state or federal court. There are two main things on which you should base this decision: 1) Where is the case law strongest and 2) Which judge is most favorable to prisoners rights. You may also want to consider how fast the court system will deal with your case. You need to do some research into these issues. Talking to jailhouse lawyers and lawyers on the outside who are in your state is a good help. You should have already looked at relevant court cases (cases similar to yours) to see what recent decisions have been in favor of prisoners rights. You can cite relevant federal law and supreme court cases in state court and you can sometimes cite relevant state law in federal court where federal law does not address an issue. To look into judges you can read "Lawyers Weekly" to find out recent info on judges decisions, but the best resource is going to be jailhouse lawyers, lawyers, and local organizations in your state like the ACLU or the National Lawyers Guild. Fifth step: Try to get legal help At this point you have done a lot of research on your own and it's a good idea to try to get some help from people more familiar with law if you can. This is where MIM can try to help. We have compiled a list of jailhouse lawyers and a few lawyers on the outside willing to help other prisoners. If you exhaust the resources below and still can't find the help you need, write to us and we will try to put you in touch with someone who can help. But before you contact us, try the following: Jailhouse lawyers in your own prison. Ask around and see if anyone there can help you. Your state American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) National Lawyers Guild chapter in your state Other organizations in your state that do progressive legal work for prisoners (ask other prisoners for info on these resources in your state if you don't know of any). ACLU's National Prison Project (located in Washington DC) Law schools in your state (these sometimes have programs to help prisoners with research) Note that MIM will not be handing out lists of jailhouse lawyers to prisoners who have not done any research on their case on their own because there are not enough people with legal experience and too many prisoners who need legal help. MIM would rather have legal resources go to the cases that prisoners are most likely to follow through, do research on, and win. (You are welcome to make a case for why you need legal help if you can not do this research yourself.) Sixth step: File your case If you are filing in State court contact the Clerk of Superior Court in your county, or look at the State Rules of Court or The Prisoners Litigation Manual to find out the process you need to follow. If you are filing in Federal court you need to write to the Clerk of US district court in your district and ask for Civil Rights complaint forms. The court will send you a whole packet of stuff and a letter indicating the process. The Prisoners Litigation Manual gives more details on this. Seventh step: The legal battle begins In both state and federal cases the defendant will generally file a motion to dismiss the case by writing some legal defense of their actions. You must respond to this with your own memorandum describing why they are wrong and what case law you have backing you up. If you do not do this, there is a good chance your case will be dismissed by the judge. See The Prisoners Litigation Manual for more information on where to go from here. Note on the importance of follow through. Your court case may be a long legal battle and it is important that you follow through on this. Once you have filed a case, what happens has repercussions for other prisoners, not just for yourself. If your case is dismissed because you decided not to respond to the prisoncrat's request to have it dismissed, they will then cite this example in future cases and the judge may be more likely to follow this example and dismiss future similar cases. And even if you do fight the case through to the end, if you don't do a good job of it and lose the case because of lack of adequate research, prisoners filing similar cases may lose because of this precedent you set. For this reason, it is important to do the best job you can in fighting prison repression through the courts. This resource guide is produced and distributed by MIM. We are compiling information on relevant cases, particularly those that succeed in fighting civil rights violations so that others can benefit from your work so please send us copies of any information that you think would be useful to other prisoners. MIM Legal Notes MIM Legal Notes is a column written out of the Serve the People Prisoners' Legal Clinic(PLC). The PLC is a section of the anti-imperialist prisoner mass organization "United Struggle from Within" that is part of the MIM-led United Front against imperialist domination. MIM Legal Notes should not be taken as professional legal advice. It is written by prisoners and is a means to share helpful information on relevant research with other comrades. The articles in MIM Legal Notes may have inaccuracies and may also be less relevant to prisoners working in different states and under different laws. The PLC accepts submissions on relevant legal battles faced by prisoners. MIM and USW comrades reserve the right to edit copy submitted. The below article appeared in MIM Notes #184, April 15, 1999. Censorship in Amerikan prisons by a Tennessee prisoner fighting against the censorship of MIM Notes at his/her institution The First Amendment to the United States Constitution provides: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for redress of grievances." The First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States made applicable to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment in effect guarantees to the people the right of free expression in order that there may be a full and unrestricted interchange of ideas for bringing about any political and social changed desired by the people and gives protection to all ideas no matter how unorthodox or controversial so long as they have the slightest redeeming social importance. The exceptions to the free speech rights include words or conduct used in such circumstances and of such nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that congress has the right to prevent. Prison officials can restrict incoming correspondence if the restrictions are "reasonably related" to legitimate interests. But prison officials may not censor letters just because they criticize prison conditions or personnel, or offend them in some way. Procunier v. Martinez, 94 S.Ct.1800. Incoming letters may be censored if there is a "reasonable relationship" between censorship and some legitimate correctional purpose. In Thornburgh v. Abbott, 109 S.Ct. 1874 (1989), the Supreme Court upheld the censorship of publications that are "detrimental to the security, good order, or discipline of the institution or ... might facilitate criminal activity." This same principle holds true for books, magazines and newspapers. Censorship will not, or rather should not apply, "solely because the publication's content is political, unpopular or repugnant". Thornburgh v. Abbott, 109 S.Ct. 1874, 1881-82 (1989). The Supreme Court did not decide what publications could properly be censored under the regulation upheld in Thornburgh. Historically, prison officials have also tried to censor unorthodox political, sexual, racial or religious views, and especially views that are critical of prison officials. Such censorship was generally struck down under the Procunier v. Martinez standard. To begin a censorship case, you should look closely at the prison system's censorship rules. If it appears that the censors have violated those rules, you may be better off seeking relief on that basis in state court than pursuing a constitutional claim in federal court. In general, the violation of state law and regulations by state officials cannot be remedied in federal court. Censorship may be an exception to this rule. The Supreme Court has stated that when First Amendment rights are implicated "precision of regulation must be the touchstone." NAACP v. Button, 83 S.Ct 328 (1963). Also, prison censors must observe procedural safeguards. First, there must be an "individualized" determination that a particular publication violates the rules at the time it is censored. The prison cannot simply establish an "excluded list" of publications. The Supreme Court in Thornburgh relied heavily on the existence of this protection in upholding the censorship regulation. Most courts have required additional safeguards as well, including notice of the censorship, an opportunity to be heard, a meaningful statement of reasons for the censorship, a prompt decision, and the right to appeal to an official other than the censor. Some courts have held that the sender of the literature should also receive notice and an opportunity to be heard. A requirement of notice to the sender would be consistent with the Supreme Court's holding that the author of a censored letter should get a change to protest. Procunier v. Martinez, 94 S. Ct. 1800 (1974). (This procedural part of Procunier was not overruled by Thornburgh v. Abbott.) Notice to the sender is also consistent with common sense. The prisoner is hardly in a position to dispute the censorship of a publication he has not been allowed to see. The sender, who knows what is in the publication or can find out, is better able to explain why the publication should not have been censored. A prisoner challenging censorship of MIM Notes must be prepared to show: (1) that the censorship is not reasonably related to any correctional objective, and (2) that MIM Notes are not detrimental to the security, good order, or discipline of the institution. The courts require prisoners to exhaust their administrative remedies; if MIM Notes is rejected be sure to appeal the decision all the way to the final authority. Be sure to fully read the prison policies pertaining to censorship. And if you decided to go to court, be sure to read the legal cases cited in this article. "Power to the People" Note: Sections of this article was taken from the Prisoner's Self-Help Litigation Manual.