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| NJ ends prison ban on interviews |
| By The Star-Ledger |
| Published: 06/15/2006 |
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NEWARK, NJ - The New Jersey Department of Corrections said yesterday it would rescind a controversial 5-month-old policy that prohibited inmates from being interviewed by the news media. Deirdre Fedkenheuer, a spokeswoman for the department, said officials would return to a policy of evaluating interview requests on a case-by-case basis, with security considerations factored into each decision. She said acting Corrections Commissioner George Hayman, who established the prohibition on interviews when he took office in January, would personally evaluate each request. "It was something he did very early in his tenure," she said of the prohibition. "We are going back to looking at it on a case-by-case basis." The policy reversal came on the day The Star-Ledger reported that New Jersey's restrictions on interviews were among the most stringent in the nation. A department spokesman said there would be no scheduled interviews, reporters could not be placed on inmates' visitation lists and they could not receive collect calls from inmates. The restrictions reversed decades of tradition in which reporters were given free access to the prisons if inmates wanted to be interviewed. The new restriction even barred reporters from access to the prisons to cover new programs or activities. The New Jersey Press Association, the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups sharply criticized the new policy, saying the public had a right to know what was going on in a public institution. Fedkenheuer said yesterday that inmates now would be able to put reporters on their list for collect phone calls as long as they were not calling 800 numbers or cell phones or had to be switched to an extension. She said reporters could be on prisoners' visitation lists but still would not be allowed to bring a pad or paper inside. |
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