In a significant victory for the constitutional right of workers behind bars to read material of their choosing and of the Militant to reach its inmate subscribers, Florida prison authorities after months of dispute overturned bans on three issues of the socialist newsweekly June 9.
The Militant had earlier won the lifting of the bans on seven other issues. This means that the bans on all 10 issues of the paper imposed since January have now been overturned.
“The Militant and its incarcerated subscribers have a First Amendment right to send and receive the newsletter, and we are glad to see that these impoundments have been overturned,” wrote the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, one of more than 25 prominent organizations, union activists, professors and others who wrote letters to the Florida Department of Corrections asking that the bans be lifted.
“Outstanding news!” said David Fathi from the American Civil Liberties Union National Prison Project.
Other groups that backed the fight included the Florida Press Association, which represents every daily and most weekly papers across the state; Amnesty International USA; PEN America; ACLU of Florida; Neighbors United from Minneapolis; and La Resistencia from Washington state.
The assistant warden at Taylor Correctional Institution in Perry, Florida, had initiated the bans, impounding issues no. 4, 5 and 6, citing front-page articles reporting on public opposition to heavy-handed Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Minneapolis. Almost every paper in the country reported on the debate over immigration in Minnesota.
Taylor officials alleged the articles were “dangerously inflammatory,” encouraging “riot, insurrection, rebellion, organized prison protest, disruption of the institution, or the violation of the federal law, state law, or Department rules.”
But that is absurd. As many who wrote to the Florida Department of Corrections Literature Review Committee pointed out, the Militant criticized the provocative actions by some ICE opponents, calling instead for labor-led disciplined and peaceful protests, as well as for amnesty for immigrants without papers.
After the initial bans, authorities at Taylor impounded three more issues simply for reporting on efforts to overturn them. And Lancaster Correctional Institution in Trenton, Florida, impounded three additional issues for the same reason. Lancaster also banned another Militant issue for opposing the U.S. economic blockade against Cuba.
Within weeks the Literature Review Committee overturned these seven more recent bans, but upheld the bans on issues 4, 5 and 6.
Second appeal leads to victory
Under a 2022 Florida Department of Corrections rule change, the Militant requested the Literature Review Committee conduct a “reconsideration” of its decision to uphold those three bans. The paper presented strong evidence the ruling “was not based on any of the criteria” in the prison system’s own rules. This appeal was successful.
The Militant has over 380 subscribers in federal, state and municipal prisons in over 30 states, including more than 160 in Florida. “I know that there is nothing illegal about the Militant,” a prisoner at Taylor wrote to the paper. Prison authorities don’t like that “it is for prisoners, to help and inform us and for us to inform you,” about “what they are doing to us in here.”
“The Militant views prisoners as fellow working people who for whatever reason are on the other side of the prison walls,” Militant editor John Studer said. “They have the same interest as workers everywhere in struggling for a world without exploitation and oppression, one based on human solidarity, an interest we try to help satisfy.
“This is a victory not just for the Militant, and not just for our prisoner subscribers, but for all those who defend and seek to use the right to free speech and freedom of the press.”