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| Attorney says state prison newspaper ban violates First Amendment |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 10/27/2003 |
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The 39 men in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections' long-term segregation unit may be the "worst of the worst" of Pennsylvania's 38,000 male inmates, but even they have a First Amendment right to read secular newspapers and keep pictures of loved ones in their cells, an attorney argued in federal court. Pittsburgh attorney Jere Krakoff wants a three-judge panel from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to strike down a policy that bans secular newspapers and magazines, and personal photographs from the special unit located at the State Correctional Institution-Pittsburgh. The long-term segregation unit houses up to 40 men who, by attacking officers, other inmates, or by flunking out of program designed to teach them to live peaceably behind bars _ have demonstrated they can't or won't live normally anywhere else in the state system, state officials said. But Krakoff said the policy isn't rational and violates the First Amendment rights of individual prisoners because even those who haven't abused the materials in question are banned from having them in long-term segregation. Krakoff sued two years ago, but a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in January, prompting the 3rd Circuit appeal. Prison officials say inmates in long-term segregation can use the newspapers to hide contraband, set fires or even use rolled up papers to fling human waste or poke officers in the eye. But Krakoff said those same prisoners must be given religious newspapers, magazines and books, like the Bible, because of First Amendment protections. And because the religious materials could be similarly abused it makes no sense to deprive them of regular newspapers. The state's rationale is that "people would be less inclined to use religious items for that purpose. But in my neighborhood, I argued that the Jewish newspaper was routinely used to wrap your garbage in at the end of the week," Krakoff said. "There's nothing sacrosanct about those objects - you can set a fire with it, you can fling waste with it, you can do anything with it that you might do with a secular newspaper." Although Mericli stands by the Department of Corrections' security concerns, he said the primary issue is one of discipline. The segregated prisoners already spend 23 hours a day in their cells, get limited phone calls and personal visits and aren't allowed to hold prison jobs. Krakoff said if that's the case, the inmates should be offered the chance to read the newspapers as an incentive to improve their behavior. He said letting the inmates read for a couple of hours a day - with the newspapers being passed back to officers - would satisfy the prisoners and the prison staff. But Mericli said that's more difficult than it sounds. The inmates in question must be shackled and escorted if they are taken anywhere, so a reading period in the prison law library would be costly _ especially since the segregated prisoners could only be led around individually. If the inmates were allowed to read in their cells, another problem could develop. |
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