Post #62089 by martiki on Tue, Nov 25, 2003 5:40 PM

This is what midnite is on about:

The Pelican Bay State Prison Web page of the California Department of Corrections Web site boasts cabinetry, graphic arts and dry cleaning among the vocational "personal growth opportunities" available to inmates.

The site gives directions to the maximum-security facility in the northwest corner of California, announces visiting hours and touts the "innovative and collaborative environment" that the joint offers to the "state's most serious criminal offenders in a secure, safe and disciplined institutional setting."

This mix of useful info larded with correctional boosterism wouldn't be especially noteworthy, except for the way it's delivered online. Because Pelican Bay Prison administrators officially take a suspicious view of the Internet.

Even as the California Department of Corrections exploits the Web as a great way to brag to the not-currently incarcerated public at large about all its prisons have to offer, the state is maintaining that prison officials should be allowed to ban all materials downloaded from the Net, including e-mail, from reaching inmates.

California prisoners don't have Internet access, but they are allowed to receive regular mail. So what the state is saying, essentially, is that prisoners are not allowed snail mail that contains printouts of information from Internet sites or e-mail messages. It's a seemingly ludicrous position, ostensibly based on the premise that the Internet makes accessing information so easy that prisons are about to be overwhelmed by a flood of physical mail containing Web-page tidbits.

More than that, prison officials won't say, which leads outside experts to speculate that maybe they're keeping mum as to the real reason for the attempted crackdown on all things Net-related. Maybe the real problem, they suggest, is the proliferation of "prison pen pal sites" -- a kind of online dating service for incarcerated felons.

So far, the courts haven't agreed with the state of California. In September 2002, a district court judge, Claudia Walkin, ruled that in the case of Frank Clement vs. the California Department of Corrections, the Pelican Bay policy should be thrown out on First Amendment grounds. She also barred the California Department of Corrections from "enforcing any policy prohibiting California inmates from receiving mail that contains Internet-generated information." That ruling effectively struck down similar policies in other California prisons.

The California state attorney general is fighting to keep the ban, and has appealed the decision. The attorney general argues that prison officials can restrict the constitutional rights of prisoners, including their First Amendment rights, if it serves a "legitimate penological interest." The state maintains that banning Web page and e-mail printouts does serve a legitimate purpose, charging that such information could compromise security, and that allowing Internet printouts to be sent into prisons would overwhelm already strapped mailroom workers with sheer volume.

Not sure if this means there is access granted while the ruling is being appealed. But midnite is an attorney, so I defer to him.....

Hmmm...some contoversy here. Also- there is no Soledad State prison. There are two prisons in Soledad, SVSP and CTF. Can you clarify, tikichump?

Book Of Tiki is a coffee table book with history and images, and I can't imagine why any CDC offical would have a problem with you having it.

I'll give tikichump the benefit of the doubt since it would be bizarre, pathetic, and deranged to pretend to be incarcerated.