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| Bills would ease reporters' access to inmates |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 03/29/2004 |
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With California's prison system under fire from federal judges and state lawmakers, committees in the Assembly and Senate advanced bills last Tuesday that would give journalists increased access to inmates. Currently, reporters must sign up as regular visitors, vying with family members and friends for visitation time that has been cut in half under new rules this year. They also are barred from using wire-bound notebooks, tape recorders and cameras, though the prison will provide paper and pencils. A bill by state Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, would remove those restrictions, letting journalists schedule interviews with inmates and use reporting tools. A much narrower bill by Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, would let a reporter who gets on one inmate's visitation list visit any willing prisoner at the same facility during regular visiting hours for a year. Leno said his bill better balances prison security with journalists' requirements. Representatives of Crime Victims United spoke against Leno's bill, echoing the position of the Department of Corrections that the rules imposed eight years ago under Republican former Gov. Pete Wilson are needed to prevent the media from glamorizing inmates and profiting from celebrity interviews. Reporters can readily arrange to visit prisons, but not to interview specific inmates. They also can write to ask inmates to call them collect, but those calls may be recorded by prison officials and are limited to 15 minutes. Signing up for an inmate's visitor's list takes about 30 days. The bills now go to the respective chambers' appropriations committees. |
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