Judge orders state to allow inmates to get newspaper

Greg Tuttle

Thursday, Aug. 17, 2000 | 10:35 a.m.

Nevada prison inmates can receive a monthly publication written by other inmates and attorneys that officials stopped distributing last year, a federal judge has ruled.

But state officials say they will continue to review the publication for material that poses a safety risk and have a right to censor publications passed out to inmates.

U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben on Tuesday ordered state prison officials to distribute Prison Legal News, which filed a lawsuit against the Nevada Department of Prisons last month. The American Civil Liberties Union backed the publication's effort to force state prison officials to distribute the 32-page tabloid published by a Washington inmate since 1980.

The lawsuit was filed after state prison officials stopped distributing the publication last September. The officials said the tabloid was contraband correspondence between inmates in different facilities.

Prison Legal News has a circulation of about 3,500 and is read by inmates in all 50 states, according to the general manager, Fred Markham. The tabloid publishes articles written by inmates, attorneys and others with a focus on legal issues of interest to those already serving time.

The lawsuit contends prison officials are violating the publication's First Amendment right by not distributing it to the 21 Nevada inmates who have subscriptions.

McKibben issued a preliminary injunction against the "blanket exclusion" of the publication in Nevada prisons. The ruling notes the publication's "probable success" if the lawsuit should go to trial and the irreparable harm of continuing to deny inmates access to the publication.

"It's pretty clear here we win on both of those," said Gary Peck, executive director of the ACLU in Nevada.

Deputy Attorney General Joe Ward said state officials agreed to distribute the publication before McKibben's ruling based on a recent U.S. Supreme Court case.