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NEWS & LETTERS, March 2004Prison journalists punished for exposing truthPrison administrators in two states have disciplined convicts whose reports of adverse prison conditions were published in national magazines and newspapers. In Texas and Florida, state prison officials charged prisoners with "establishing and/or operating an unauthorized business enterprise" when they wrote articles for publication in newspapers and magazines and got paid for doing it. On March 18, 2003, a Texas prison disciplinary committee found William B. Sorens guilty of operating a business from the John. M. Wynne State Prison in Huntsville. Sorens’ "business" was writing magazine stories for pay. The effect of the disciplinary committee’s ruling was to extend Sorens’ first possible release date from December 2005 to December 2006. "I was, in effect, sentenced to one year for writing," said Sorens who is serving a 60-year sentence. Sorens had written "Hardcore Hate," a story about racial hatred among Texas prisoners. His story ran in PLAYBOY in 2001. Earlier this year, Sorens sold a story about prison censorship to another national magazine. Sorens also writes for STRAWS IN THE WIND, a semi-monthly newsletter published by Rev. Lloyd Palmer of Albert Lea, Minn. "Occasionally, I’ll send him $25 or something for postage or writing materials," Palmer said. RETALIATION In Florida, state prisoner David Reutter was charged with "running a business" after he sold a story about the dismal conditions in a Florida state prison. In 1993, Reutter was a prisoner at Florida’s Glades Correctional Institution, a dilapidated facility built in 1934 near the Everglades. Reutter complained that the prison was overcrowded, infested with rats, and in need of repairs--the windows were broken, screens ripped out, electrical wiring was exposed, the roof leaked, and raw sewage accumulated beneath one dormitory building. After submitting complaints and grievances which prison officials ignored, Reutter filed a lawsuit. On June 5, 2002, without admitting wrongdoing, the state of Florida agreed to settle the lawsuit and pay Reutter $3,000. Reutter, who remains imprisoned in Florida, then wrote the Glades story which appeared in the April 2003 issue of PRISON LEGAL NEWS, a monthly magazine based in Seattle. (The magazine pays its prisoner-writers the picayune sum of $10 for stories such as Reutter’s.) Thereafter, Florida prison officials charged and convicted Reutter of running a business by writing and selling news stories. He was sentenced to 90 days of solitary confinement and forfeiture of 45 days good conduct time. After PRISON LEGAL NEWS’ editor arranged for an attorney to handle Reutter’s challenge to the disciplinary conviction, Florida prison officials retaliated by barring distribution of incoming issues of the publication to all subscribers in the state’s prisons. In June 2002, the federal courts released Texas prisons from 29 years of oversight. Unfettered by federal control, Texas prison officials quickly took steps to limit the prisoners’ ability to communicate. Previously, Texas prisoners were allowed to purchase typewriters and rudimentary word processors through prison stores. Now such sales are forbidden. NEW RESTRICTIONS Previously Texas prisoners who had purchased a word processor or typewriter were allowed to send the unit out for repairs when needed. Now prisoners may send out the unit for repairs but prison rules forbid the repair ship to return the unit to the prisoner. Previously the 150,000 Texas prisoners were allowed to correspond with other prisoners. Now the new correspondence rules forbid prisoner-to-prisoner correspondence even when the purpose of the correspondence is to formulate relief from oppressive conditions of confinement. Previously Texas prisoners were allowed to purchase as many postage stamps as needed to send their letters to family and friends and to send their legal papers to their attorneys and the courts. Now new rules drastically limit the number of postage stamps a prisoner may purchase and possess. The Reutter and Sorens matters provide clear evidence of the increasingly oppressive mindset of prison administrators. Texas officials, never willing to admit they made a mistake, say they will defend Sorens' disciplinary conviction even if the case goes to court. --C. C. Simmons |
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