NCJ Number
84763
Date Published
1981
Length
15 pages
Annotation
Although the U.S. Supreme Court has rendered decisions supporting inmates' individual freedom of expression under the first amendment, such support has not been given for the activity of inmate organizations.
Abstract
In Procunier v. Martinez, the U.S. Supreme Court held unconstitutional California prison mail censorship regulations as giving too much discretion to prison officials to censor ideas on the basis of their content. In Jones v. North Carolina Prisoners' Labor Union, the Supreme Court undermined the Procunier decision on the application of the first amendment in prison. Jones held that (1) penal officials may constitutionally bar solicitation of prisoners for membership in a prisoners' union even though the prison has not barred membership in the union per se; (2) prison officials may deny a prisoners' union the bulk mailing privileges given other organizations; and (3) officials can bar prisoners' union meetings within the prison, although other prisoner organizations are allowed to meet. The first two holdings are difficult to reconcile with the Procunier decisions, while the third holding can be defended as being outside the ambit of Procunier because of the significantly greater conduct component necessarily involved in such meetings. The only way to distinguish between the expression allowed in Procunier and that suppressed in Jones is the focus on the group protest aspects of Jones. Yet the Jones majority will be hard pressed to articulate a coherent doctrinal position that will implement their policy preferences for individual but not group protest in the prison. A total of 198 footnotes is listed.