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| Lawsuit filed over pen pal ban |
| By MiamiHerald.com |
| Published: 05/06/2009 |
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Lawsuit filed over Florida prisons' pen pal ban A Fort Lauderdale woman who owns a Christian pen pal service is suing the state corrections department over a prison pen pal ban. BY JAWEED KALEEM - MiamiHerald.com The Fort Lauderdale owner of a Christian pen pal service filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday charging the Florida Department of Corrections with violating the First Amendment by blocking her from putting churches in touch with Florida inmates. Joy Perry runs Prison Pen Pals and the Freedom Through Christ Ministry, which gives prisoners' contact information to churches that want to send them Bibles and other religious materials. She filed suit in U.S. District Court in Jacksonville along with Adam Lovell of Edgewater, president of WriteAPrisoner.Com. ''My prison ministry connects prisoners nationwide who wish to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ with churches,'' said Perry, 79, who says she has run the services since 1980 and has a list of about 5,000 prisoners nationwide. ``Florida prisons have returned my correspondance and pen pal contact information.'' Under Florida law, prisoners are allowed to send and receive mail but cannot place advertising soliciting pen pals, receive mail from ad services or be subscribed to ad services. ''How are you going to reach an inmate to write unless you have a service to find him?'' said Randall Berg, a Miami lawyer representing the plaintiffs. Berg said the ban on ad services violates freedom of speech provisions of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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