http://themilitant.com/2018/8204/820403.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 82/No. 4 January 29, 2018
(front page)
‘Militant’ wins overturn of Florida
prison ban — again
BY SETH GALINSKY
The Florida prison system’s Literature Review Committee says that the
impoundment of the Dec. 18 issue of the Militant was a “mistake” and has
been reversed. Officials at the Florida State Prison in Raiford banned
the issue because of the article “Join Fight to Overturn Ban Against
‘Militant’!” which reported on the Militant’s successful efforts to stop
censorship of the paper.
Officials at the Raiford prison failed to inform the Militant of the
impoundment, contrary to state prison guidelines. The paper learned
about it from letters received from subscribers behind bars.
Inmates at both the Charlotte Correctional Institution in Punta Gorda
and at Santa Rosa Correctional Institution in Milton, Florida, sent the
Militant copies of impoundment notices they received. One said he had
appealed the decision.
It’s standard operating procedure in Florida that whenever one prison
impounds a publication or book, it’s taken away from the inmates in all
of the state’s 148 prison facilities. The Militant has dozens of
subscribers in Florida prisons.
When David Goldstein, the Militant’s attorney, contacted the Literature
Review Committee to find out the deadline to file an appeal against the
ban, Dean Peterson, head of the committee, told him they had reviewed it
the day before and overturned it.
This new ban came just a couple weeks after the committee overturned the
impoundment of two previous issues of the paper. Overall, prison
officials impounded nine issues in 2017, seven of which were overturned
after the Militant and some prisoners appealed.
The Militant’s ongoing fight for the right of workers behind bars to
read the paper has won broad support. Letters protesting impoundments in
Florida prisons have come from Amnesty International USA, PEN America,
New York’s Riverside Church Prison Ministry, the Alianza Martiana in
Florida and others.
“Whenever the Militant is censored, we organize to win support for our
right to reach our readers behind bars and for their constitutional
right to read literature of their choosing,” said John Studer, editor of
the Militant. “We want more workers behind bars to subscribe, and to
order books we promote from Pathfinder Press that are written by leaders
of the Socialist Workers Party and other revolutionaries from Fidel
Castro to Malcolm X. These books point the way forward for the working
class in the face of capitalist exploitation and oppression.
“Workers behind bars are that part of the working class the propertied
rulers have run through their criminal ‘justice’ system and put in
prison for a time,” he said. “They share common interests with workers
on the outside, and they need the revolutionary working-class
perspective we present.”
Related articles:
Victories scored against NY, NJ prison book bans
Pussy Riot speaks out about fight against prison conditions in Russia
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