prisoners' rights
Deaf Prisoners Get Little or No Assistance in DC Jail Annex, ACLU Tells Council
September 25, 2012Calling for accountability, the ACLU told the DC Council September 20 that deaf inmates in the privately-run annex to the D.C. Jail (called the Correctional Treatment Facility, operated by Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America) have reported getting no help understanding classes, medical appointments and discipline proceedings.
Freedom to Read Victory in DC Jail: Corrections Officials Promise Staff Retraining to End Mail-room Censorship of Innocent Books
May 20, 2012"A jail full of prisoners quietly reading," says ACLU Senior Staff Attorney Fritz Mulhauser, "is exactly what every warden should want. With a recent reponse from the D.C. Department of Corrections to censorship problems we identified, we look forward to more books reaching D.C. prisoners."
Department General Counsel Maria Amato in a May 15, 2012, letter confirmed the ACLU complaint that mailroom staff had been wrong to censor innceont books. There will be additional training, Amato told ACLU, to assure staff do a "more faithful application" of the First Amendment rights of prisoners to read literature. Staff had also ignored internal rules requiring high-level review before any book-banning is final; Amato said those rules, too, will be reinforced in training "and adhered to going forward."
- Full Story
- Topics: First Amendment, prisoners' rights
