TRI In The News
DOC Settles Inmate's First Amendment Suit
From The Daily Progress
Original article available here.
Virginia Department of Corrections inmates will have more access to religious media, according to a settlement in a prisoner's First Amendment lawsuit against the DOC.
Kyle Mabe filed suit Feb. 3, 2010, against the state, DOC and DOC officials in Norfolk's federal court over a denied request to order a CD of a Christian sermon. According to a settlement announced Tuesday by The Rutherford Institute, the DOC will allow all prisoners to request spoken-work religious media through the prison-approved Jones Express Music and prison chaplains or designated staff members.
The settlement also said Mabe will be able to order CDs of sermons from Still Waters Ministries of Kentucky, which are now available through Jones Express, and he will receive $125 in damages. The attorneys representing Mabe also will be paid $16,500 in attorney's fees. According to court records, the case has been dismissed.
A spokesman for the state attorney general's office didn't immediately respond to a request seeking comment for this story Tuesday.
Mabe's suit is one of a handful that have been filed by local attorneys against the DOC over First Amendment violations regarding banned publications. John W. Whitehead, founder of the Albemarle County-based civil liberties organization that filed Mabe's suit, said that lawsuits seem to be the way to affect [sic] change in the nation's prisons.
Whitehead said that American children don't receive a proper civic education, which leads to similarly uneducated adults.
"These lawsuits are kind of a wakeup call," Whitehead said. "Why you see these lawsuits is basically because there is a dearth of information possessed about what the Constitution requires and a lack of zeal to protect these things."
Mabe was incarcerated at St. Brides Correctional Center in Chesapeake when he tried to order the "Life Without a Cross" sermon, which is only available on CD. According to the suit, Mabe was told that prisoners can only receive music CDs and not sermons on CDs and he was unable to obtain the CD despite a grievance and appeal to DOC officials.
The lawsuit accused the DOC of violating the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and several aspects of the Constitution of Virginia.
After the suit was filed, The Rutherford Institute said in a news release, the DOC created a new policy that said inmates could get non-music CDs as long as they were purchased through a single source through the DOC.
Bringing a CD into the prison system involves more than a cursory glance at the cover art. Larry Traylor, DOC spokesman, said staff have to listen to the CDs to make sure that they contain what they say they contain and the CD must be screened for appropriate language and any information that "would adversely affect security."
"This is time consuming and labor intensive," Traylor said.
The DOC has two committees that review CDs -- the Music Review Committee for music CDs and the Faith Review Committee for religious, non-music CDs. While the DOC has a Disapproved Publications List for books and periodicals, Traylor said, there is only a list of approved music or non-music/religious CDs and only through Jones Express.
