Victory! Indiana prison officials reverse ban on the ‘Militant’
https://themilitant.com/2020/11/28/victory-indiana-prison-officials-reverse-ban-on-the-militant/
BY BRIAN WILLIAMS
Vol. 84/No. 48
December 7, 2020
A victory has been won in defense of the right of Militant subscriber
Kevin “Rashid” Johnson to receive the paper at the Wabash Valley
Correctional Facility in Indiana.
Johnson, a leader of the New Afrikan Black Panther Party, had written
the Militant Nov. 5 reporting that prison authorities had informed him a
recent issue had been “disallowed due to safety and security of facility.”
He subsequently learned that it was issue no. 44, with a banner
headline, “Vote Socialist Workers Party!” In violation of its own
regulations, prison authorities didn’t say why the paper was impounded,
what article they objected to, nor did they inform the Militant about
the impoundment.
Militant attorney David Goldstein contacted Jon Ferguson, the Indiana
Department of Correction chief legal officer, urging the ban be
overturned, otherwise the paper will challenge the suppression.
“[P]ublishers such as the Militant have a First Amendment right to send
publications to inmates, particularly to disseminate political views,”
he said.
“Thank you again for forwarding this to my attention,” Ferguson wrote
back Nov. 19, “Mr. Johnson will be receiving Vol. 84, No. 44 shortly.”
Johnson is a well-known political activist. He has been repeatedly
transferred as authorities try to isolate and harass him. He was first
incarcerated in Virginia in 1990, then sent to Oregon, Texas, Florida,
back to Virginia, and now Indiana, where he was held at Pendleton
Correctional Facility before being moved to Wabash Valley in September.
At the end of last year authorities at Pendleton impounded four issues
of the Militant from Johnson. This was reversed after Goldstein filed a
protest on behalf of the paper and several people sent letters urging
this violation of prisoners’ right to free speech be overturned.
Ferguson informed Goldstein that the impoundments at Pendleton “was
determined to be in error. Staff have been retrained in the matter.” But
it seems “retraining” had only gone so far, with Wabash Valley
attempting to do the same thing after Johnson was transferred there.
Johnson reports that prison officials at Wabash Valley have also
suppressed his subscriptions to the San Francisco Bay View and Socialist
Viewpoint.
“For the second time we’ve succeeded in reversing attempts by prison
authorities in Indiana to prevent Johnson from getting the Militant,”
said John Studer, the paper’s editor. “These are victories and set an
important precedent to be used by others. The Militant will continue to
fight to reverse any ban of the paper on behalf of the growing number of
Militant subscribers behind bars.
“Prisoners have the right to read the political materials they choose,”
he said, “to think for themselves and form their own opinions over how
to deal with today’s deepening economic and social crisis.”
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Drive to expand readership of the ‘Militant,’ books goes over the top
Victory! Indiana prison officials reverse ban on the ‘Militant’
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Fall Campaign to sell Militant subscriptions and books (week eight)
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___
Sam Harris
“Are you really surprised by the endurance of religion? What ideology is likely
to be more durable than one that conforms, at every turn, to our powers of
wishful thinking? Hope is easy; knowledge is hard. Science is the one domain in
which we human beings make a truly heroic effort to counter our innate biases
and wishful thinking. Science is the one endeavor in which we have developed a
refined methodology for separating what a person hopes is true from what he has
good reason to believe. The methodology isn't perfect, and the history of
science is riddled with abject failures of scientific objectivity. But that is
just the point-these have been failures of science, discovered and corrected
by-what, religion? No, by good science.”
― Sam Harris
