Vol. 79/No. 9      March 16, 2015

BY NAOMI CRAINE
For the second time in two months, Florida prison authorities had to reverse an attempt by the Taylor Correctional Institution to ban an issue of the Militant. This continues a string of victories over the last year and a half against attempts by Florida prison officials to prevent Militant subscribers from receiving the paper.

Ironically, prison censors ordered the Jan. 19 issue “impounded” because a front-page article “‘Militant’ Beats Back Censorship at Fla. Prison” reported how their efforts to bar the paper failed last time.

On Feb. 25 the Militant received notice that the paper was seized because it “discusses local prison,” that is, the Taylor CI. The censors also objected to the paper’s annual holiday “Greetings to Workers Behind Bars!” saying it showed “disrespect to authority.”

“The efforts of tens of thousands behind bars to use hunger strikes and other protests to demand their rights and assert their dignity has won grudging gains from some prison authorities,” the editorial said. “Victories have been won in the U.K. recently and at Taylor Correctional Institution in Florida on the right of inmates to get books and newspapers, including the Militant.”

David Goldstein, an attorney for the Militant in New York who has worked with the Florida American Civil Liberties Union to beat back previous attacks on the rights of the paper and its readers in prisons there, called Florida Department of Corrections Library Services Administrator Marty Morrison to indicate they would be challenging the impoundment. Morrison said that they had already reversed Taylor authorities’ impoundment.

She sent Goldstein a notice marking the Militant issue as “approved” on the state’s “Admissible Reading Materials list,” dated the same day the paper received the notice of impoundment.

Defending the right of subscribers to receive their paper is an ongoing fight not just for the Militant, but also for publications such as the Prison Legal News and San Francisco Bay View that champion the rights of workers behind bars and report on their fights for respect and dignity.

Now we’ll see what happens when this issue gets to Taylor. …  
 
 
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