https://themilitant.com/2020/02/01/victory-indiana-prison-officials-overturn-ban-on-the-militant/
Victory! Indiana prison officials overturn ban on the ‘Militant’
article
BY BRIAN WILLIAMS
Vol. 84/No. 5
February 10, 2020
A victory has been won in the fight to reverse impoundments of the
Militant from subscriber Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, who is incarcerated
at the Pendleton
Correctional Facility in Indiana.
“I am writing on behalf of the Indiana Department of Correction with
regards to your January 15, 2020 letter,” said an email sent to
Militant attorney
David Goldstein Jan. 29 by Jon Ferguson, state Correction’s chief legal
officer. “We were able to make an inquiry into why the periodical was
withheld
and it was determined to be in error.
“Staff have been retrained in the matter and the withheld issues should
be returned to Mr. Johnson in short order,” Ferguson wrote. “Thank you
very much
for bringing this problem to our attention.”
The Militant first learned about the impoundments from a letter
received from Johnson Jan. 2 reporting that issues nos. 43-46 from the
end of last year
were being withheld from him, as well as other periodicals like San
Francisco Bay View and Socialist Viewpoint.
Johnson said that notices given to him informing him of the ban claimed
the paper was “Prohibited Property” and a “Security Risk.” Prison
officials never
informed the Militant of the impoundments, nor, in violation of their
own rules, did they give any explanation to Johnson of what they found
objectionable.
“I know that you all generally challenge such bans,” Johnson wrote, “so
I want to give you all relevant information to support your challenge.”
In his Jan. 15 letter appealing the ban, Goldstein said, “The U.S.
Supreme Court has explicitly held that the rights of prisoners to
receive publications
extends to the rights of publishers to reach willing subscribers.”
“From the moment we received Johnson’s letter asking for help in
challenging the ban, the Militant and other defenders of prisoners’
rights sprang into
action to win this victory,” said Militant editor John Studer.
“Johnson, like all prisoners, has the right to be politically active and
to read the political views of his choice. And the Militant has the
right to
send its paper to all its subscribers,” Studer said.
Indiana correction officials began receiving letters objecting to
suppression of the Militant and backing prisoners’ right to read the
literature they
want.
“Prisoners should have the same rights to read material of their
choosing as those of us not behind bars,” Jerome Ulman, a retired
professor from Ball
State University in Muncie, Indiana, wrote. “The Bill of Rights applies
to all citizens.”
Petitions signed by dozens of workers from Walmart stores in Chicago and
Louisville, Kentucky, were sent in. “Prisoners should be allowed to read
what
they want,” said a letter signed by 21 workers at the Walmart store in
Darien, Illinois, sent to the Indiana Department of Correction Jan 22.
“The seizing
of the Militant, other newspapers, and personal mail, is a violation of
prisoners’ human rights. Workers behind bars need to be able to read
material of
their choosing, to think for themselves and to be part of the world.”
“I implore you to grant Mr. Johnson Bill of Rights,” wrote Bishop Dennis
Lyons from the Gospel Missionary Church in Louisville, Kentucky, to
prison authorities
Jan. 22, and give him his “Militant Publication.”
“I have been a subscriber to the Militant for some 45 years,” wrote
Mindy Brudno, a rail worker from Athens, Ohio, in her note to the
Indiana Department
of Correction, “and cannot imagine any possible justification” for the
impoundments.
Johnson became a political activist in prison and is a leader of the New
Afrikan Black Panther Party. In an attempt to isolate him, prison
officials have
repeatedly transferred him around — from Virginia to Oregon, Texas,
Florida, Virginia again, and now Indiana. He had been receiving the
Militant in Pendleton
since November 2018.
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IN THIS ISSUE
Front Page Articles
list of 6 items
• Join the Socialist Workers Party 2020 US presidential campaign!
• Meet the SWP candidates: Alyson Kennedy & Malcolm Jarrett
• Back protests against gov’t repression in Iran and Iraq
• Solidarity bolsters copper miners’ fight against Asarco union busting
• Victory! Indiana prison officials overturn ban on the ‘Militant’
• Join the May Day Brigade to Cuba, see the difference revolution makes
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Feature Articles
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• Cuba’s socialist revolution, China and the world class struggle today
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• Fearing 2020 election defeat, liberals say: Convict Trump!
• Protest hits lack of Puerto Rico gov’t response after quake
• Putin moves to extend his rule, tamp down workers’ resistance
• Miami Alianza Martiana headquarters vandalized
• Asela de los Santos, Cuban revolutionary leader
• Parents protest asbestos threat in Philadelphia schools
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On the Picket Line
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• Locked-out Regina refinery workers fight to defend pensions
• Ontario teachers unions protest attacks on wages and class size
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Books of the Month
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• SWP 1968 candidate takes antiwar campaign to GIs in Vietnam
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Sam Harris
“Tell a devout Christian that his wife is cheating on him, or that frozen
yogurt can make a man invisible, and he is likely to require as much evidence
as anyone else, and to be persuaded only to the extent that you give it. Tell
him that the book he keeps by his bed was written by an invisible deity who
will punish him with fire for eternity if he fails to accept its every
incredible claim about the universe, and he seems to require no evidence what
so ever.”
― Sam Harris,
