Inmates Sue for Right To Use the Internet

By NewsFactor Network | November 24, 2006

When a friend sent Georgia inmate Danny Williams some legal research that had been downloaded from the Internet this year, state prison guards confiscated the package.

Prison officials said the material was prohibited under a 5-year-old regulation that, according to state Department of Corrections Commissioner James Donald, bars inmates from receiving any printed material downloaded from the Internet. The policy is designed to prevent inmates from gaining access to material on the Internet that could compromise security — bombmaking instructions, for example.

Now, Williams is challenging the policy in federal court, the latest in a series of cases in which inmates are seeking changes in prison regulations or state law to try to use the Internet to do research or communicate with the outside world.

State and federal inmates do not have direct access to computers. However, some have used written correspondence with friends or family members to set up and maintain Web sites and e-mail accounts to air grievances, solicit legal assistance and express political views.

Legal challenges such as Williams’ — along with recent reports that several death-row inmates in Texas have posted personal profiles on the social networking site MySpace.com — have ignited a national debate over speech rights and how much contact prisoners should be allowed with the public in the Internet age.

John Boston, a prisoners’ rights advocate in New York, says inmates’ use of the Internet — albeit indirectly — represents a matter of simple free speech that should be protected.

However, Andy Kahan, director of Houston’s crime victims office, says some of that speech, potentially viewable around the world, could reinjure victims.

“It’s like getting (harmed) all over again,” Kahan says.

Campaigns To Block Access

In some states, crime victims and prison officials have launched legal and informal campaigns to block all access to the Internet by inmates. Those strategies, however,…

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