California Prison Authorities Issue Bogus Justification for Censorship of Revolution Newspaper

August 18, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

Revolution newspaper reported last May that Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) was barring the May 1, 2013 issue (#302) of Revolution newspaper from a number of subscribers at PBSP. This was reported by prisoners to the Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund (PRLF) which raises the funds to provide prisoners with subscriptions to Revolution newspaper. (See "Censorship Alert! Revolution Withheld from Prisoners in Pelican Bay Prison, CA ".)

PBSP officials violated California prison rules by not informing the publisher within 15 days of this act of censorship. Now, three months later, in what appears to be a response to a letter from the PRLF's lawyers demanding that PBSP stop its censorship of Revolution newspaper, the authorities finally sent the required official notification. The notice includes the following reason for censoring issue #302: "...Allowing inmates to retain materials inciting participation in a mass disturbance is a serious threat to the safety and security of this institution."

These allegations made by prison authorities are clearly as outrageous as they are bogus.

Revolution newspaper was covering, and continues to cover the courageous and inspiring stand prisoners in solitary confinement in California are taking in calling for a hunger strike to end the inhumane conditions they face. And it does so from the larger context of exposing a whole system of exploitation and oppression. Think about the logic of the official justification of censorship—hundreds of mainstream and other news sources are covering the hunger strike and prison conditions from different perspectives ... Can prison authorities be allowed to ONLY permit prisoners to read news coverage that does not expose and challenge their lies, and censor anything else on the basis that it is "inciting participation in a mass disturbance"? The logic of this is chilling and illegal.

One page cited as the cause for that censorship of issue #302 reprinted the Agreement to End Hostilities, a "mutual agreement between all racial groups" signed by 14 prisoners in the Pelican Bay SHU that says in part, "Therefore, beginning on October 10, 2012, all hostilities between our racial groups... in SHU, Ad-Seg, General Population, and County Jails, will officially cease. This means that from this date on, all racial group hostilities need to be at an end... and if personal issues arise between individuals, people need to do all they can to exhaust all diplomatic means to settle such disputes; do not allow personal, individual issues to escalate into racial group issues!!"

This is historic and genuinely newsworthy. It is revealing that the prison authorities find the call for an end to any racial hostilities in the prison to be creating or inciting a "mass disturbance." One must ask, a disturbance of what? (For a full discussion of these issues please see "What is Actually Revealed in the California Prisoners Hunger Strike? Responding to Jeffrey Beard's Los Angeles Times Op-ed").

As the attorneys representing the PRLF made clear in a letter to PBSP prison officials, current legal standards make PBSP's grounds for censorship of Revolution newspaper unconstitutional, "In this way, simple news coverage about prison conditions cannot be deemed a plan to disrupt the order or the security of a prison facility. In fact, the Supreme Court has found that 'the conditions in this Nation's prisons are a matter that is both newsworthy and of great public importance.' Pell v. Procunier, 417 U.S. 817 n.7 (1974). Similarly, the presentation of ideas that some may find controversial does not constitute a plan to breach the security of an institution. McCabe v. Arave, 827 F.2d 634 (9th Cir. 1987)..."

Recently a second letter from PBSP authorities was sent to the publishers of Revolution newspaper regarding barring issue #308 from the prison. This notice cites two of the same causes for censorship as issue #302: "Contraband" and "Disturbing or Offensive Correspondence," and further states "Unauthorized correspondence between inmates." What exactly is alleged to constitute this is unspecified. The page of Revolution cited has two articles, "Statement from Pelican Bay Prisoners: We have to put our lives on the line to force CDCR to do what's right" written by leaders of the hunger strike and a statement calling for people to sign the "End Censorship of Revolution Newspaper at California's Pelican Bay State Prison."

Again, both of these are without question news stories being covered by many news outlets. Covering the hunger strike and the prisoners' reasons for it in their own words can NOT be allowed to be construed as "unauthorized correspondence between inmates"—otherwise prisoners would not be allowed access to news that had prisoners as the news source! Ask yourself, how is it that Jeffrey Beard, head of the California Department of Corrections can write an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times and quote unnamed prisoners who serve his efforts to discredit the hunger strike and that issue of the LA Times NOT be banned from California prisons for "unauthorized correspondence between inmates?" Again, can prison authorities ONLY allow news coverage into prison that does not expose and challenge their lies, and rule that anything else as a violation of prison regulations?

While Pelican Bay authorities have been compelled to give official notice regarding censorship of two issues of Revolution, it isn't clear how many issues of Revolution have been or continue to be censored. Since the hunger strike began over four weeks ago, some prisoners have been moved to even more horrendous isolation, rolled up mattresses put at the bottom of their cell doors so that they can't even hear each other talk; strikers have been moved to different prisons; a number have been in and out of medical facilities, both inside and out of the prison system; and mail is delivered two to three weeks late in many cases, if at all.

These official letters about the censorship of Revolution from PBSP authorities are further evidence that the censorship is really about trying to isolate, demoralize and further torture these prisoners through denying them revolutionary sustenance, including news of growing support beyond the prison walls for their efforts to stop the criminal and unimaginably horrible conditions of long-term solitary confinement to which they have been subjected.

The struggle to end the censorship of Revolution newspaper in Pelican Bay State Prison must be stepped up. Go to www.prlf.org to sign the Statement regarding issue #302, and write to Warden Greg Lewis, Pelican Bay State Prison, P.O. Box 7000, Crescent City, CA 95531-7000, to demand the end of all censorship of Revolution newspaper.

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