Mo. prisons must tell senders about blocked mail

Friday, November 16, 2012

By DAVID A. LIEB

Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A federal judge has ordered the Missouri Department of Corrections not to block books or letters from being delivered to prisoners without providing the people who sent the items a notification and a chance to appeal.

The preliminary injunction was touted Friday by the American Civil Liberties Union, which had filed suit on behalf of a publisher that claimed personnel at the Crossroads Correctional Facility in Cameron seized several copies of books mailed to prisoners in November 2010.

“This decision will have a significant positive impact not only for publishers, but for anyone who communicates with prisoners,” said Brenda Jones, executive director of the ACLU of Eastern Missouri. “They’ll now know with certainty if their letters reach their intended recipients and have some recourse if they don’t.”

The Department of Corrections declined to comment Friday, citing the ongoing litigation.

The department’s censorship procedures say inmates can receive correspondence and written or recorded materials so long as they “pose no threat to the safety and security of the institution, public officials, offenders, or the general public; do not hinder the rehabilitation of an offender; (and) are not being used to further illegal or deceptive activities.”

In a decision dated Thursday, U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey cited First Amendment liberties and due process rights while ordering the department to provide notice to senders whose communications are censored or seized, plus a chance to appeal.

The lawsuit was filed by Bobbie Lane, whom court documents identify as the owner of the Caged Potential publishing company and the cousin of inmate Sultan Lane, who wrote a book entitled “So far from Paradise.” Online records of the Department of Corrections show Sultan Lane is serving a 25-year sentence for first-degree robbery, first-degree tampering and felony drug possession.

The lawsuit said that seven copies of the book were mailed to inmates who never received them, and the publisher never received notice from the department that the books had been intercepted.

Laughrey previously granted class-action status to the lawsuit to cover “all current and future publishers, distributors, and authors of written materials, who mail books, publications, or other written materials to inmates” in Missouri prisons.

More like this story

JCLifer 7 months ago

Can't they just E-mail the prisoners or call them on their Obamaphone?

herekitty 7 months ago

Their prisoners and NOT vacationers. They don't need computters or TV's. They need to pay for the crimes they commited. Just ask the people they've wronged!

Paroquet 7 months ago

Herekitty,

Did you flunk spelling? It's "they are", and we've had more than a few wrongfully convicted freed. Also, if you dehumanize them further, what do you think you are going to have when they get out, huh?

No, they're not all wronged golden children. Some of them are the career kind. But look at their iptions when they get out? You wanna keep punishing them after they've done their time, right? Forever. Until the end of their lives.

A lot of other people do too. Perfect recipe for causing recidivism.

Think. It only hurts the first few times.

connor 7 months ago

Before you go on about correcting someone's mistakes you may wish to correct your own. One reason I rarely do this is simply because everyone makes many grammatical, usage and punctuation mistakes when typing in forums. For instance.

It is options not iptions and your closing punctuation omits the question mark "after they've done their time" which honestly should read "after they have completed their time".

Very few have mastered the written English language, I certainly am aware that I have not, so criticizing one poster's improper usage just paints you as a target.

Think about it. I know you will need some Tylenol after a brief few minutes but try for once. No really. Try.

Paroquet 7 months ago

Told ya earlier, me boyo; sometimes I shoot from the hip. When someone leads that badly, I can occasionally lose my poise.

Oh, and I know my punctuation is weird. So is sometimes my sentence structure and vernacular. Heck, I got better grades in Spanish & German. Kinda funny for a kid who was sent to special-ed because he'd been relocated to Iowa from North Carolina. Turned out I wasn't stupid--I just sounded funny. Did okay by the time I made it to MO. Fit in like ticks on a dog.

Herekitty's post flicked my nerve. It happens. Guilty as charged.

What? I'm human. I have my own flaws, failings and weaknesses.

And tylenol is bad for your liver. Don't use it. Don't need to. No headaches. Back's been giving me some fits though, nothing I can't deal with. The Missus has been all on getting the house re-floored. Refinishing near century-old oak and laying in a custom mosaic ain't all it's cracked-up to be.

Guten nacht. Schlapt gut. Catchya later dude. Been a fun row tonight, eh? :)

wow 7 months ago

Obamaphone....OOOOOOMMMMYYYYY Freakin pants are gonna fall off. Can ya tell me just what Obama has to do with this. Does every dumb decision being made in this country have to be blamed on President Obama? The Bengazi stuff has nothing to do with him except that he is the Commander and Chief and therefore ultimaltely responsible...and that's exactly what he has said himself..."stop balmming everyone else and lay the blame on "him" the Presdent". However folks cannot find a way to do that. The actions of Playboy Patreus were commited by the Republicans next Presidential hopeful....but that's Obama's fault too...YEAH RIGHT!!!! Mitt Romney got HAB in the election but it wasn't because Obama got far more electorial votes and the popular vote...and this occurred inspite of all the Republican games to stop people from voting. According to Mitt is was because the President promised things to the 47% that Mitt dissed!!! Ohhh paaallease.

Should prisoner's be treated nice in prison..."No", but they should be treated humanely. They should not be living high on the hog, getting free cable, education, job training or meals. Whenever possible they should be rehabilitated and made to work hard for everything they recieve while being taken care of by the tax payers. Should they be allowed to get their mail..."YES", but it should not be at the risk of the priosn staff and all documents must be searched and detremined by the prison staff not to be dangerous or contraband.

Perhaps the Obamaphone was meant to be a joke and if so...I can handle that, but if it was a complaint. Please enough already, because if you take off the sheet's,the blinder's, dump the hate...this President has not been perfect, but has tried woprking to help all American's. Now if that is wrong...then perhaps America is not where you want to live. It's your choice...me I'm staying put, cause I love the world being able to see the myth of the White Male suprmamcy being destroyed as this President and those of us who are working with him, make it do what it do, so that United States of America flourishes along with the rest of the world.

In closing...the ACLU does not run the MO-DOC and unless there is something far sinister going on with the DOC mail system which we don;t know about...the ACLU should leave well eneough alone and let the MO-DOC folks handle the convicts...after all the guilty convicts volunteered to be their care and custody.

connor 7 months ago

Your President has done nothing for 1/3rd of the population, in fact he attacks it every chance he gets. Not that he really does much for any non-union people either but you guys aren't really high maintenance as long as your racist desires are being fulfilled. That is until this election you better get busy paying off the Hispanics now though.

You might want to reconsider sticking around these parts though once the full Obama-damage is done.

JCLifer 7 months ago

Stop whining. We all know it is really all George Bush's fault. Everything that has ever gone wrong in the world during the last four years can all be blamed on Bush. Yes, white males suk too.

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