NCJ Number
79197
Journal
Corrections Magazine Volume: 7 Issue: 4 Dated: (August 1981) Pages: 45-49
Date Published
1981
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Judicial decisions bearing upon prison administration's censorship of inmate newspapers are reviewed.
Abstract
Inmate newpapers have existed since 1800. They have always been routinely and sometimes arbitrarily censored by prison officials. However, in recent years, inmate journalists have increasingly turned to the courts to challenge administrative censorship. In 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Procunier v. Martinez that mail could only be censored if it furthered 'an important or substantial governmental interest unrelated to the suppression of expression.' In the 1977 Jones v. North Carolina Prisoners' Labor Union case, the court ruled that inmates' rights to mass mailing privileges is an issue better left to the discretion of prison officials. More reversals for inmate journalists have followed in the wake of the Jones decision. In the years after the Martinez decision, prison officials, if taken to court, had to prove that censorship of inmate newspapers was necessary for the security of the institution. Currently, inmates must prove that censorship is not necessary.