p2pnet - rss feed: EFF acts for Georgia prisoners
p2p news / p2pnet: Although Georgia state prisons allow prisoners to receive hand-written letters, it’s imposed a blanket ban on all incoming mail containing printouts from the Net.
But this is wrong, says the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), and on behalf of Prison Legal News, has told a federal court Wednesday that Georgia state prisoners should be allowed to receive material derived from online sources.
Prison Legal News is a 48-page, monthly non-profit legal magazine publishing reviews and analyses of prisoner rights, prisoner-relevant legislation and court rulings, and news about general prison issues. “About 65% of PLN’s subscribers are state and federal prisoners, and PLN has prisoner subscribers in all fifty states,” it says on the PLN web site.
“Since prisoners cannot themselves access the Internet, Internet materials printed and mailed by family and friends are often the only way for them to receive valuable legal information, health advice, and religious materials,” says the EFF.
In a friend-of-the-court brief for a case filed by Georgia prisoner Danny Williams, the EFF argues this, “indiscriminate and arbitrary ban on Internet-generated materials violates prisoners’ First Amendment rights. Several courts in other states have already ruled that mail policies like the one at issue here are unconstitutional.”
“It makes no sense and serves no legitimate interest for a prison to prohibit a prisoner from receiving, for example, a printout of the latest issue of Prison Legal News, or information from the Internet about health issues like AIDS that can be life-or-death issues for prisoners,” says EFF staff attorney Kevin Bankston.
Also read:-
EFF - EFF Defends Prisoners’ First Amendment Rights, December 16, 2005
December 17th, 2005 at 9:29 pm
[quote]In a friend-of-the-court brief for a case filed by Georgia prisoner Danny Williams, the EFF argues this, “indiscriminate and arbitrary ban on Internet-generated materials violates prisoners’ First Amendment rights. Several courts in other states have already ruled that mail policies like the one at issue here are unconstitutional.”[/quote]
It is highly unconstitutional, and I am ashamed to live in a country that deprives it’s citizens (prisoner or not) their basic civil rights. Punishment is losing your life for predetermined amount of time, your job, possibly your family. Where does punishment end? When is enough enough? What lesson does it teach to take away access to media? The internet is an important and almost required outlet for information in todays society and it’s usage should be extended to everyone. period.
December 19th, 2005 at 11:59 am
I agrre.
All prisions should have libraries for use by the prisiones. Here Intenet enabled computer should also be available.
Prision should be rehabilitation centers, not punishment center. Rehabilitation can only come with work and education and perhaps other elements.
Punishment only breeds more crime.
Perhaps if the government was not so busy fighting the Arabs for their oil or or fighting file sharing or getting reelected, they may set up Internet based educational programs that prisioners can take at almost zero cost.
But forget the ideas here. Government is more concerned about CD piracy in China and terrorizing American youth and mothers that love music and may have shared it with others and selected because they have no financial resources to defend themselves in the courts. And of course, government is also too bust getting itslef reelected with the needed lobby money.
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com
December 19th, 2005 at 7:15 pm
Most members of the House of Representative have totally forgotten what their job is. Their job is to represent the PEOPLE!!!! The Senate was originally intended to represent the State governments. What this means is that representatives are supposed to talk to the people and find out how the people would vote on different bills. The senate is supposed to take input from state governments and vote according to the interests of STATE governments.
I have yet to see a representative put a single form on his or her page that allows a voter to checkmark which way a particular House member should vote on a bill. Doing something like this and having vote kiosks in places around a representaive’s district would allow a representative to get a true feel for the wishes of the voters. Representatives should also be legally required to vote according to the wishes of the voters.
Unfrotunately, both House and Senate mebers listen to one thing and one thing only, and that is the money coming from big business and special interest groups. In order to reform America we need to demand accountability from congress. To do that, people need to quit voting for the members of the Democratic-Republican Party.
December 23rd, 2005 at 9:58 am
Exactly, I have written (via the eff) three or four letters to my local representative to have never received as little as a ’screw you’ form letter.