Publishers sue Va prisons for banning law guide
Washinton Examiner
July 22, 2010
Virginia prison officials have unconstitutionally banned inmates from receiving a book that teaches them how to file lawsuits concerning mistreatment or poor prison conditions, the book's publishers claim in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
National Lawyers Guild and the Center for Constitutional Rights, both nonprofit civil rights organizations, sued state Department of Corrections Director Gene Johnson, officials at Coffeewood Correctional Center in Mitchells and members of the department's Publication Review Committee in federal court in Charlottesville.
The groups claim the officials violated their First Amendment and due process rights when they restricted inmates' access to their book "Jailhouse Lawyer's Handbook: How to Bring a Federal Lawsuit to Challenge Violations of Your Rights in Prison." Corrections officials claimed the book was a danger to prison security or "good order."
"If it is dangerous to educate people about the Constitution, there are a lot of law schools who are going to be in trouble," said Rachel Meeropol, a CCR attorney who helped write the handbook.
The lawsuit says a prisoner at Coffeewood received approval to order the free publication last fall, but when it arrived it was disapproved and sent to the state's Publication Review Committee.
Copyright
2010