A lawsuit, alleging censorship of inmate mail by the Upshur County Jail, has been settled in the plaintiffs favor.
Prison Legal News settled the lawsuit for $175,000.
Named as defendants in the suit, which was filed in October, 2012, were the county, Sheriff Anthony Betterton and Sheriffs Lt. Jill McCauley.
The suit stated that Upshur County Jails inmate handbook contained no written criteria explaining when a publication will be rejected, and the jails mail policy did not provide a sender any notice or explanation when a book is censored, stated a story in the February, 2014, edition of Prison Legal News (PLN), reporting the settlement.
The story stated that PLN had mailed copies of its monthly magazine to prisoners at the Upshur County Jail, as well as letters, renewal notices, brochures and copies of a book, Protecting Your Health and Safety.
The article said that the jail rejected about 90 of PLNs publications over a one-year period, stamping them No Newspaper, Unauthorized Mail, Not Approved, or Refused.
The article said the jail also rejected legal mail sent to prisoners by PLNs attorney. No notice was provided regarding this censorship, and PLN was not afforded an opportunity to appeal the rejection of its publications.
Lance Weber, general counsel for the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), the nonprofit parent of PLN was quoted in the article as saying The purpose of jail is to hold the criminally accused for trial, not to punish them. Depriving pretrial detainees too poor to afford bail, who are presumed innocentof access to information that could assist them in enforcing their rights is inexcusable.
The article reported that on Sept. 30, 2013, a federal district court granted PLNs motion for a preliminary injunction, finding that the withholding of at least some of the correspondence with prisoners deprived the plaintiff, PLN, of its First Amendment rights without due process of law.
While the jail had adopted a new mail policy before the granting of the preliminary injunction, and the court said that was a clear improvement, but that it still falls short of establishing the minimum procedural safeguards constitutionally required to protect PLNs First and Fourteenth Amendment rights without due process of law.
View post:
Inmate mail censorship case settled
- Unnecessary Censorship in Skyrim Dawnguard by Normal Difficulty - Video [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2012]
- Is Censorship Ever Justified? - Video [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2012]
- Researchers fight censorship on China's Weibo - Video [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2012]
- This Week in Unnecessary Censorship - Video [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2012]
- Censorship in Politics on the Rise - Video [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2012]
- Censorship Makes No Sense! - Video [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2012]
- Government Censorship Requests to Google Exploding - Video [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2012]
- Google Censorship Report - Video [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2012]
- Unnecessary Censorship in Video Games - Skyrim Part 5 - Video [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2012]
- Solar Censorship - Video [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2012]
- euronews interview - Farhadi - self-censorship 'real danger' for Iranian filmmakers - Video [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2012]
- Youtube censorship. Let's make youtube the next Myspace - Video [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2012]
- Political Correctness SUCKS! Subliminal Censorship - Video [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2012]
- Iran Internet Censorship - Video [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2012]
- Unnecessary Censorship in Video Games - Mass Effect 3 Part 2 - Video [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2012]
- In China, is censorship the mother of creativity? - Video [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2012]
- Unnecessary Censorship in Mass Effect 3 by Normal Difficulty - Video [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2012]
- AOL censors blogs? - Video [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2012]
- Tunisia: Govt Drops Internet Censorship [Last Updated On: September 8th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 8th, 2012]
- Selectmen fear censorship at Saugus TV [Last Updated On: September 8th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 8th, 2012]
- Chinese 'blind spot' for Western readers [Last Updated On: September 8th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 8th, 2012]
- The New Yorker Got Temporarily Banned From Facebook for Posting Cartoon Boobs [Censorship] [Last Updated On: September 11th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 11th, 2012]
- Back Story: Orwellian-speak [Last Updated On: September 13th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 13th, 2012]
- EDIT: Facebook Censorship [Last Updated On: September 13th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 13th, 2012]
- Nothing, however vile, justifies censorship [Last Updated On: September 16th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 16th, 2012]
- 'US administration has put blame where it belongs' [Last Updated On: September 19th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 19th, 2012]
- Iran Shuts Down Google, Will Completely Cut Citizens Off the Internet [Censorship] [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2012]
- Belarus’s illusion of democracy [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2012]
- Censorship In The Americas: Google Brazil Chief Just Released From Custody [Last Updated On: September 28th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 28th, 2012]
- Global censorship of Internet on the rise [Last Updated On: September 29th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 29th, 2012]
- Big Brother still watching: Internet censorship is up, report says [Last Updated On: September 30th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 30th, 2012]
- Big Brother still watching: Internet censorship on the up, report says [Last Updated On: September 30th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 30th, 2012]
- Internet censorship up, report says [Last Updated On: September 30th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 30th, 2012]
- Internet Censorship on the Up, Report Says [Last Updated On: September 30th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 30th, 2012]
- Big Brother still watching: Internet censorship up, report says [Last Updated On: September 30th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 30th, 2012]
- National banned book week sheds light on censorship [Last Updated On: September 30th, 2012] [Originally Added On: September 30th, 2012]
- Iran unblocks access to Gmail [Last Updated On: October 1st, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 1st, 2012]
- Iran unblocks Gmail, plans local alternatives [Last Updated On: October 1st, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 1st, 2012]
- Kurt Vonnegut, Harper Lee, and Other Literary Greats on Censorship [Last Updated On: October 2nd, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 2nd, 2012]
- Read-out being held to raise awareness for banned book week [Last Updated On: October 2nd, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 2nd, 2012]
- Bike Matadors and Censorship Towels Spring From Ad Firm’s Creative Offshoot [Last Updated On: October 3rd, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 3rd, 2012]
- Letter: White House guilty of censorship by stealth in seeking YouTube removal [Last Updated On: October 3rd, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 3rd, 2012]
- YouTube goes legit in Turkey, bringing more sales and more censorship [Last Updated On: October 3rd, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 3rd, 2012]
- Cantor revisits 1937 degeneracy, censorship [Last Updated On: October 4th, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 4th, 2012]
- Kent Free Library brings attention to censorship with participation in Banned Books Week [Last Updated On: October 4th, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 4th, 2012]
- Media watchdog accuses Iran of intimidating journalists [Last Updated On: October 4th, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 4th, 2012]
- ‘Media censorship is back…’ [Last Updated On: October 5th, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 5th, 2012]
- Philippine president defends cybercrime law [Last Updated On: October 5th, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 5th, 2012]
- Iran censors currency rates as rial suffers [Last Updated On: October 10th, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 10th, 2012]
- Censorship Bill pushed aside by Parliament [Last Updated On: October 10th, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 10th, 2012]
- Internet censorship: Let it rot in walled gardens [Last Updated On: October 12th, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 12th, 2012]
- The Surprising Truth About Internet Censorship In The Middle East [Last Updated On: October 13th, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 13th, 2012]
- As 9/11 Pretrial Begins, ACLU Calls Out "Orwellian" Censorship of CIA Torture [Last Updated On: October 16th, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 16th, 2012]
- Theatre censorship set to be a thing of the past [Last Updated On: October 17th, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 17th, 2012]
- China scrambles to censor novelist Mo Yan's Nobel Prize [Last Updated On: October 17th, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 17th, 2012]
- Internet anti-censorship tools are being overwhelmed by demand [Last Updated On: October 31st, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 31st, 2012]
- Censorship would hinder the Internet revolution [Last Updated On: October 31st, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 31st, 2012]
- Pre-Election Reading: Wen Stephenson on Climate Self-Censorship [Last Updated On: October 31st, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 31st, 2012]
- Director takes Chinese censorship, business battles public [Last Updated On: October 31st, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 31st, 2012]
- ‘Censorship would still be around were it not for divorce’ – Owen Bonnici [Last Updated On: October 31st, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 31st, 2012]
- Qatari draft media law criticized by rights group [Last Updated On: October 31st, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 31st, 2012]
- Avila Fine Arts Lovers "Forbidden Books Part 1 and 2" - Video [Last Updated On: October 31st, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 31st, 2012]
- Anonymous - OpBigBrother: Worldwide Protests 12/08/2012 engl - Video [Last Updated On: October 31st, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 31st, 2012]
- Journalists Resist: 'Where is the freedom of speech?' - Video [Last Updated On: October 31st, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 31st, 2012]
- G20 invisible plot Censorship International conference Dangerous information - Video [Last Updated On: October 31st, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 31st, 2012]
- 'Qatar media censorship law ill advised' - Video [Last Updated On: October 31st, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 31st, 2012]
- Facebook Censorship of Navy Seals - Video [Last Updated On: October 31st, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 31st, 2012]
- NWO`s war against the press continues as Greek journalists go on strike, alleging state censorship - Video [Last Updated On: October 31st, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 31st, 2012]
- Yung Glynn [Last Updated On: October 31st, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 31st, 2012]
- Social Media Censorship - Video [Last Updated On: October 31st, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 31st, 2012]
- The Royal Guardsmen - Snoopy's Christmas (Rare Australian Radio Edit) - Video [Last Updated On: October 31st, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 31st, 2012]
- Introduction video about my Asperger's Syndrome - Video [Last Updated On: October 31st, 2012] [Originally Added On: October 31st, 2012]
- Forget SOPA, Russia Activates Web Censorship Blacklist Law [Last Updated On: November 2nd, 2012] [Originally Added On: November 2nd, 2012]
- Censorship fears loom as Russian law allowing 'Internet blacklisting' takes effect [Last Updated On: November 2nd, 2012] [Originally Added On: November 2nd, 2012]
- Exhibit Looks At Comic Book Censorship [Last Updated On: November 2nd, 2012] [Originally Added On: November 2nd, 2012]
- Their View: China censorship shows leaders still have much to hide [Last Updated On: November 2nd, 2012] [Originally Added On: November 2nd, 2012]
- Let's Play Lucius - Part 7 - Satanic Rituals and Shocking Baths - Video [Last Updated On: November 2nd, 2012] [Originally Added On: November 2nd, 2012]
- Mike Malloy on censorship of US history in schools (10/26/12) - Video [Last Updated On: November 2nd, 2012] [Originally Added On: November 2nd, 2012]
- Btooom! - Episode 5 Review - Video [Last Updated On: November 2nd, 2012] [Originally Added On: November 2nd, 2012]
- PSA OUTAKE 2 - Video [Last Updated On: November 2nd, 2012] [Originally Added On: November 2nd, 2012]