Prison Legal News v. Schwarzenegger, First amendment lawsuit and settlement filed today

Below is the press release for the lawsuit with accompanying settlement that we filed in US district court in Oakland today that revamps the CA DOC’s mail censorship system. Anyone who wants the complaint and/or the settlement e mail me off list and I will send them as they are over 1 MB in size. Please let others know about the settlement as it substantially changes the CA prison systems mail censorship scheme of things.

This settlement protects the rights of CA prisoners and those publishers who wish to communicate with them. A substantial number of PLN’s subscribers are imprisoned in the CDC so this was a critical issue for PLN. As part of the settlement, the CDC purchased five year subscriptions to PLN for all 157 of its prison law libraries as part of its damages compensation to PLN.

The damages and injunction part of the case are resolved. We are still negotiating the fees and will litigate those if necessary.

Our thanks to the firm of Rosen, Bien and Galvan for their magnificent representation of PLN in this case.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:

Sanford Jay Rosen Amy Whelan Rosen, Bien & Galvan LLP 415.433.6830 srosen@rbg-law.com awhelan@rbg-law.com

Paul Wright, Editor Prison Legal News 802.257.1342 pwright@prisonlegalnews.org

Non-Profit Prison Legal News Settles Suit Against State

for Violation of First Amendment Rights

California Dept. of Corrections Accused of Preventing Publication Delivery to Inmates

SAN FRANCISCO, April 12, 2007 – A First Amendment rights lawsuit was filed today in the United States District Court in Oakland, on behalf of Prison Legal News, a non-profit publisher of a monthly, subscription journal, against the State of California and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) (Prison Legal News v. Arnold Schwarzenegger, et.al. Case No. C-07-02058). Filed by Sanford Jay Rosen and Amy Whelan of Rosen, Bien & Galvan LLP, the suit charges defendants with unlawful censorship policies and practices that violate Seattle, WA-based Prison Legal News’ rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

The parties reached a settlement in the case prior to filing, which included commitments by the CDCR to issue notices to publishers when it excludes publications from prisons, to update regulations pertaining to inmate mail, and to cease other censorship policies. The settlement also includes damages, an undetermined amount of attorneys’ fees and costs and requires the CDCR to carry subscriptions to Prison Legal News’ monthly newsletter in all of its 157 prison libraries for 5 years.

“The First Amendment guarantees the rights to speech, publication and press to all. With its solid focus on matters of public concern, Prison Legal News is entitled to the highest degree of protection under federal law; however, the CDCR has deprived this publisher of those rights,” said Rosen. “We are hopeful that this settlement will end CDCR’s censorship policies while also ensuring access to this important publication for prisoners housed throughout California’s 33 state prisons.”

In the past two years, a significant number of Prison Legal News’ customers incarcerated in institutions operated by the Adult Operations and Adult Programs (AOAP) division of the CDCR, have failed to receive the publications they ordered. Often, Prison Legal News received no notification of rejection or explanation from the institution – learning of the failed delivery when the postal service returned the publications or the customer inquired about a late delivery or requested a refund.

“It is unfortunate that we had to resort to litigation to protect our free speech rights as a publisher and to ensure that CDCR prisoners can receive PLN and the books we distribute. This is an important vindication of significant constitutional rights and we hope this resolves our censorship problems within the California prison system,” said Paul Wright, the magazine’s editor and founder.

Prison Legal News’ journal has approximately 5,000 subscribers, 80 percent of whom are incarcerated, to its journal of the same name, which covers court decisions, news and other developments affecting prisoners’ rights. The organization also sells more than 40 prisoner-oriented books and indexes of past journal issues. Approximately 20 percent of the prisoner subscribers are in CDRC custody. In addition to the journals, the suit suggests that at least 22 CDCR institutions have prohibited inmates from receiving hardcover publications.

This is not the first time Prison Legal News has had to defend its First amendment rights and those of its prisoner subscribers. It has successfully sued the state prison systems in Washington, Oregon, and Nevada which, as a result, operate under state wide injunctions, consent decrees, or both governing those prisons’ mail systems. Binding settlements on mail policies are also in effect in Michigan and Alabama as a result of Prison Legal News’ litigation.