|
|
| Federal court: Inmates can get mail printed from Internet |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 04/26/2004 |
|
A federal appeals court last Tuesday agreed that inmates have a right to receive mail containing printed material from the Internet. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals upheld U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken's 2002 decision that first overturned the California Department of Corrections policy prohibiting the mail. That ban, which the state first imposed in 1998, wasn't justified, the San Francisco-based appeals court ruled. The case stemmed from a lawsuit brought by a Pelican Bay State Prison inmate represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, which argued inmates are entitled to mailed communications regardless of whether they originated from the Internet. The ACLU pointed out that a prisoner could receive a newspaper clipping of a story, but was prohibited from getting that same story if it was printed off the newspaper's Web site. The corrections department adopted the policy on grounds that Internet-generated mail may contain coded messages, which could pose a danger in the prison. Wilken, in the decision upheld Tuesday, said the department "failed to articulate any reason to believe that Internet-produced materials are more likely to contain coded, criminal correspondence than photocopied or handwritten materials." The case is Clement v. California Department Corrections Department, 03-15006. |
MARKETPLACE search vendors | advanced search
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
|
Comments:
No comments have been posted for this article.
Login to let us know what you think