Apply the 4-part test created by the U.S. Supreme Court in its decision in Turner v. Safley and Thornburgh v. Abbott to the f

MODULE 2: THE FIRST AMENDMENT AND COMMUNICATING WITH THE FREEWORLD

LISTEN TO: COMMENTARY ON MODULE 2

READ:

1. Chapter 3 of the textbook, pages 63-74.

1. “Prison Officials’ Determination of Gang Symbols in Outgoing Mail Accorded Deference,” in Prison Legal News, July 15, 2011:

https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2011/jul/15/prison-officials-determination-of-gang-symbols-in-outgoing-mail-accorded-deference/

1. Check out this service that allows prisoners to receive incoming emails: https://www.jpay.com/

Module 2 Assignment (due 2/9, no later than 11:59 pm)

Worth a maximum of 22.5 points toward the final grade

QUESTION 1

Apply the 4-part test created by the U.S. Supreme Court in its decision in Turner v. Safley and Thornburgh v. Abbott to the following facts. Write 4 paragraphs – one paragraph (a substantial paragraph, not 1 or 2 sentences!) for each element of the 4-part test. You MUST argue the strengths and weaknesses of both the prison administration’s policies and the challenges the prisoners have raised to those policies. Remember you MUST discuss the Supreme Court opinions that you have read about that are relevant to this analysis.

The Pennsylvania Correctional system adopted a policy that allowed prison officials to deny newspapers, magazine, and photos to a group of “specially dangerous and recalcitrant inmates.” The policy applies to prisoner housed in the Long Term Segregation Unit (LTSU), the most restrictive unit in the system, known as the RHU. The RHU is intended for prisoners who exhibit behavior that is continually violent, disruptive, dangerous, or a threat to the orderly operation of the prison facility. There are 127 prisoners in LTSU. The inmates in LTSU have engaged in assaultive behavior against other inmates or the staff; engaged in disturbances; belong to prison gangs; engaged in criminal activity that threatened the facility; possessed prison weapons or implements of escape; have attempted or actually escaped; or been a sexual predator. The LTSU is divided into 2 levels. All inmates are initially assigned to Level 2. After 90 days, depending on their behavior, an individual may graduate to the less restrictive Level 1, although in practice most inmates take much longer than 90 days to move to Level 1.

All the prisoners in the LTSU are confined to their cells 24 hours a day, have limited access to commissary or outside visitors, and may not watch television or listen to the radio. Inmates in Level 2 – the most restrictive level – have absolutely no access to commissary and can have only one visitor per month, and are allowed no phone calls except for emergencies. Level 2 inmates also have no access to newspapers, magazines, or personal photos. They are only allowed to have legal and personal correspondence, religious and legal materials, two library books, and writing paper. Level 2 inmates – somewhat less restrictive – can receive one newspaper and five magazines. The ban on photos is not lifted until a prisoner progresses out of LTSU altogether.

Pennsylvania prison officials justify the policy as a way to motivate better behavior from particularly difficult inmates, the need to minimize the amount of property they can control in their cells, and the need to ensure prison safety by, for example, diminishing the amount of material a prisoner might use to start a fire in their cell. The inmates have filed a lawsuit alleging that the policies violate the U.S. Constitution.

QUESTION 2

Apply the 4-part test created by the U.S. Supreme Court in its decision in Turner v. Safley to the following facts. Write 4 paragraphs (a substantial paragraph) – one for each element of the 4-part test. You MUST argue the strengths and weaknesses of both the prison administration’s policies and the challenges that have been raised by Ms. Simpson. Remember you MUST discuss the Supreme Court opinions that you have read about that are relevant to this analysis.

Ms. Simpson claimed that a county jail’s new mail policy that permitted only postcards for incoming mail violated her First and Fourteenth Amendment rights by impermissibly restricting her ability to communicate with her son who was then an inmate there. At trial, she attempted to introduce incoming-mail policies from other institutions that permit inmates to receive multi-page letters in envelopes as evidence that the postcard-only policy was unreasonable. The district court excluded those policies as irrelevant and held that the postcard-only policy did not violate her constitutional rights. When her son was first imprisoned at the County Jail, the jail had no restrictions on the length or number of letters that inmates received, and she wrote him several lengthy letters a week that included family photos, drawings by his nephew, and various pieces of personal information. On January 1, 2014, the county jail implemented a new incoming-mail policy requiring mail to be sent on postcards: correspondence entering the Jail Facility must be post cards only:

a) All postcards must be standard white postcards, no index cards or photographs.

b) Postcards must be no larger than 5” X 7”.

c) Postcards will have their stamps removed and discarded prior to delivery to the inmate.

d) Postcards must be addressed with the return address clearly readable.

e) There will be no limit on how many postcards inmates can receive but inmates will be limited to ten postcards in their cell at any one time.

f) Unacceptable postcards will be returned to sender. Unacceptable cards include:

1) Defaced or altered postcards are unacceptable

2) No plastic/wrappings on postcards.

3) No labels or stickers will be accepted

4) No postcards with watermarks or stains

5) No postcards with bio-hazards, including lipsticks or perfumes

6) No postcards depicting nudity, weapons, alcohol or gang references.

The county’s reasons for imposing the postcard-only policy were to reduce the risk of contraband entering the jail and to reduce the time that officers spent searching the mail. The other means of communication available to inmates at the time included fifteen-minute visits on Saturdays and collect phone calls that prisoners could place, costing $9.99 for ten minutes. After the new policy was implemented, the plaintiff mother could not fit as much writing on a single postcard as she could in a letter, so she wrote multiple postcards and numbered them so that her son could read them in order. She claimed that the postcards were confusing because they did not always arrive at the same time or in order and if there were more than ten postcards, her son could not keep them all in his possession at once. She also testified that limiting her writing to postcards changed the nature of her communications with her son because anyone would be able to read what she wrote, including postal employees.

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Instructions

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