Barring the doors.

AuthorRothschild, Matthew
PositionJournalists and prison conditions - Editorial

On July 4, Grayling Mitchell, an inmate at the California Correctional Institution, Tehachapi, wrote me the following letter:

"I thought I'd bring to your attention an issue that may be of interest. I am a prisoner and have been receiving your magazine for quite a while now. On July 3, I was called to the sergeant's office to be handed a Notification of Disapproval--publications. They've disallowed your July issue. Needless to say, I am appealing their decision.

"I just thought I'd inform you of this terrible denial of our First Amendment."

I tried to call Grayling Mitchell, but the prison wouldn't put me through. "The only way you can call from the outside is if it's a family emergency," the switchboard operator told me.

I then called the prison officer in charge of the mail room, Sergeant J.S. Berkshire, who suppressed the magazine in the first place and then rejected Mitchell's appeal.

I asked him why he wouldn't let our subscriber receive the magazine. He said that the California Code, Title 15, Section 3136A, instructs prisons not to allow inmates to receive "any matter of a character tending to incite murder, arson, riot, or any form of violence or physical harm to any person or any ethnic, gender, racial, religious, or other group."

I asked what in our July issue was inciting inmates to murder, arson, riot, or other acts of violence. He fingered the piece by Associate Editor Anne-Marie Cusac, "Stunning Technology," which investigated the stun belt, a new tool prison guards could misuse on inmates.

Why that piece?

"Because," said Sergeant Berkshire, "the inmates will look at this and say, `The guards are doing this and that to us with an instrument that's like a Nazi torture device,' and that'll tend to incite action against officers, guards, and administrators."

He also said the article by Bobbie Stein, "Sexual Abuse," violated the regulations. "If my wife was in prison, and I was in prison, I'd be inflamed to action by an article that says prison guards are letting male inmates rape the women inmates."

I told him that I believed his actions constituted a gross violation of Grayling Mitchell's First Amendment rights--and of our First Amendment rights.

"I'm just totally indifferent," Sergeant Berkshire told me. "Someone in Sacramento came up with this framework that we're required to use. Our hands are tied. This is what we have to do."

We do not appreciate having our rights violated here at The Progressive, but we're not alone.

"At...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT