In a victory for readers of the Militant behind bars and all defenders of free speech and prisoners’ rights, the Florida Department of Corrections Literature Review Committee informed the paper April 1 that it had overturned the impoundment by prison authorities of three issues. At the same time, four issues of the Militant are still banned.
Thanks in part to public support and letters written to the Literature Review Committee from readers, union leaders and constitutional rights organizations, the committee informed the Militant that it had reversed the impoundments of issues nos. 7, 8 and 9.
Issue no. 7 had been impounded at the Lancaster Correctional Institution in Trenton, Florida, where officials had cited the front-page article “SWP call to action: US hands off Cuba! End Washington’s economic blockade!” as the cause of the censorship.
Issues nos. 8 and 9 had been impounded at the Taylor Correctional Institution in Perry, Florida, for articles reporting on the breadth of letters urging them to overturn the bans still being enforced on issues nos. 4, 5 and 6. Prison officials had claimed front-page articles reporting on disciplined demonstrations defending immigrants and the need for a fight for amnesty for workers without papers “present a threat to the security” of the prison.
With no explanation, the Literature Review Committee informed Militant attorney David Goldstein that the paper’s appeal of the impoundments of issues nos. 4, 5 and 6 had been rejected.
In addition, officials at Taylor have also banned issue no. 10, dated March 16, for a front-page article “Fight to overturn Florida prison ban on coverage of rights of immigrants.”
“For the Committee to single out such publications with no analysis of the content and context of the articles at issue, no specification of the alleged safety concerns, nor a recognition of the Militant’s and the greater media’s consistent coverage of matters of public concern, is arbitrary, capricious, and lacking a sufficiently compelling governmental interest,” the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press wrote the Literature Review Committee April 3.
Based in Washington, D.C., the Reporters Committee steering committee includes well-known journalists for the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, NBC, NPR, Associated Press and other established media.
Ban ‘infringes upon First Amendment rights’
For all of the bans, prison officials have claimed that an article is “dangerously inflammatory in that it advocates or encourages riot, insurrection, rebellion.”
The Reporters Committee said, “The impounded Issues cannot reasonably be construed as a threat to the safety of those incarcerated at any Florida carceral facility.”
Saying, “the impoundment and confiscation of the Militant infringes upon the First Amendment rights of both the Militant’s publisher and its incarcerated subscribers,” the Reporters Committee urged the Literature Review Committee to “direct Taylor Correctional Institution, and any other facility that may be withholding this publication to cease confiscating the issues.”
A prisoner at Taylor who was having his subscription kept from him wrote to the paper March 30, “I know there is nothing illegal about the Militant except that it is for prisoners, to help and inform us.”
“Please do something about this because I can’t,” he wrote. “Every time we write grievances here, they are thrown in the trash or are not answered.”
The Militant is currently mailed to 347 subscribers in 168 federal, state and local prisons in 35 states, including 135 subscribers in 31 state facilities in Florida.
The fight against the unconstitutional bans on issues 4, 5, 6 and 10 continues! Help get letters from unions, political rights groups and prominent individuals. Send them to the Literature Review Committee, Florida Department of Corrections, 501 South Calhoun St., Tallahassee, FL 32399-2500, or email Melvin.Herring@fdc.myflorida.com and Saritza.Legault@fdc.myflorida.com, with a copy to themilitant@mac.com.