West Virginia Department of Corrections Punis
Bork - 14.05.2003 23:01
The Mount Olive Correctional Complex / WV Dept of Corrections inmate regulations call for a 90 day Loss of Privileges for an inmate's name being found on the Internet through search engines.
From: Bork ( jamieandjoe@mutualaid.org)
The Mount Olive Correctional Complex / WV Dept of Corrections inmate regulations call for a 90 day Loss of Privileges for an inmate's name being found on the Internet through search engines.
My husband Joseph Lavigne Jr., a falsely convicted inmate of Mount Olive
Correctional Complex is currently punished under this regulation and has
been informed that his punishment will be renewed if his name is not
eliminated in sources found on the Internet (two of which were
explicitly mentioned).
Although he has been unable to write to his family or anyone on the
outside except to ask for the removal of his name and address, he
expressed in one letter how isolating this has been. " I cannot call you
right now because of the LOP [Loss of Privileges].This LOP of mine is a
good example of what's wrong here. I am being punished for something I
did not do, again."
I am asking for help in stopping punishment of all prisoners under this
rule. As prisoners are allowed no direct access to the Internet, this
regulation essentially holds the prisoner responsible for the action of
others. The inmates are being used as "hostages" for the behavior of
others. Additionally it serves to censor those who wish to use the
internet as a forum for speech about the inmates case but do not wish to
see harm to the inmate, thus violating First Amendment guarantees. It
serves as an isolating factor by not allowing people to share an
inmates' name and location. And finally it serves to attempt to censor
news sources who have written or who wish to write about the prisoner
and where he is being held. Censorship of the press is another
constitutional aspect to this regulation and, I suspect the courts would
agree possibly the most disturbing.
The regulation also leaves the inmate especially vulnerable to others.
It would allow the inmate's enemies to put up websites with the inmate's
name and location for the explicit purpose of causing punishment. "Loss
of Privileges" is not a minor punishment. The inmates of Mount Olive
Correctional Complex, a maximum-security facility, are incarcerated for
exceptionally long sentences: many are there for life. The loss of all
outside visitation, access to news from television or radio, library
visits, and all other privileges is particularly disorientating and
stressful. For them to suffer such a loss due to something that they
have no control over is particularly senseless and painful. And for
those inmates with some hope of release, it is capricious, disempowering
and unlikely to teach anything positive that would allow successful
reintegration into society.
One site explicitly cited for censorship is an article from the magazine
Justice Denied. At this time the article mentioning my husband is in
their archive section. To hold my husband's wellbeing as hostage in
order to censor what this magazine wishes to publish or has already
published is reprehensible and unconstitutional. Freedom of the press is
one of the foundations of American society. For the MOCC regulation to
attempt to regulate the press in this manner is contemptible. Another
site is a personal website of mine that is devoted to my and my
husband's cases, which even the West Virginia Supreme Court ruled were
so inextricably intertwined that they could not consider mine without
considering his. The website is mine - not my husbands, put on the
internet to speak what I wish to say about what has happened in my life,
and yet he is being punished for its' content. And I am being told it
will continue unless I censor what I say. Other sites mention his name
as well, and while not explicitly cited by the prison authorities, as
long as this inhumane and kafkaesque regulation stands, my husband or
any other inmate in a similar situation could suffer administrative
"loss of privileges" simply for being written about beyond prison walls.
Again, I am asking for any aid you are willing to provide help stop this
injustice immediately. Letters, faxes, phone calls, and emails of
outrage directed to the Mount Olive Correctional Complex warden, the
West Virginia Department of Corrections, and the Governor of West
Virginia Bob Wise will hopefully put enough pressure on the system to
change. Please help. We must demand that all inmates, currently being
subjected to punishment due to this rule be immediately released from
their punishment and that the regulation itself be repealed. Contact
information for these individuals is:
Commissioner Jim Rubenstein
WVDOC Central Office, State Capitol Complex
112 California Ave. Bldg. 4, Room 300
Charleston, WV 25305
(304) 558-2036 Phone (304) 558-5934 Fax
Warden, MOCC 1 Mountainside Way
Mt. Olive, West Virginia 25185
(phone) 442-7213 (fax) 442-7225
Governor Bob Wise
 http://www.state.wv.us/governor/New_eform.cfm
1900 Kanawha Boulevard, E., Charleston, WV 25305
Phone Toll-Free: 1-888-438-2731
Please spread the word of what is happening to everyone you know. Thank
you for your help and solidarity on this issue.
Respectfully,
Jamie Loughner
 Website: http://maydaydc.mahost.org/
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