EFF Defends Prisoners' First Amendment Rights

Opposes Prison Mail Ban on Materials Printed from Internet

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on behalf of
Prison Legal News told a federal court Wednesday that
Georgia state prisoners should be allowed to receive
material printed from the Internet through the mail.

Although Georgia state prisons allow prisoners to receive
handwritten letters in the mail, Georgia prison policy also
includes a blanket ban on any incoming mail containing
printouts from the Internet. 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. In a friend-of-the-court brief for
a case filed by Georgia prisoner Danny Williams, EFF argues
that 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.

"Georgia prisons are violating the rights of prisoners and
those who correspond with them by senselessly allowing
prisoners to receive handwritten mail but prohibiting
printouts of material from the Internet," said EFF Staff
Attorney Kevin Bankston. "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."

Prison Legal News is a non-profit legal magazine,
publishing monthly review and analyses of prisoner rights,
prisoner-relevant legislation and court rulings, and news
about general prison issues. The majority of Prison Legal
News subscribers, as well as most of its writers, are
currently incarcerated.

EFF was assisted in this case by attorney Sarah M. Shalf of
Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore, LLP in Atlanta, Georgia.

For the brief filed in this case:


For this release: