From The Marshall Project:
On Monday, The Marshall Project received a tip: New York state prisons were quietly adopting new rules to clamp down on writing, music, art and other creative work from people inside. Incarcerated artists and outside nonprofits, who wanted to publish the materials, would both have to submit it to internal reviewers first.
On Tuesday, New York Focus broke the news. Prisoners, First Amendment experts, and groups like PEN America, which mentors and publishes incarcerated writers, all parsed the directive’s vague language for clues. Would writing in one’s journal make the pages contraband? Would the rules apply to journalism by prisoners? (A state spokesperson told The Marshall Project that they would, if the prisoner was being paid.)
Facing a public backlash, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision announced Wednesday that it was rescinding the directive entirely. “It was never our objective to limit free speech or creative endeavors,” spokesperson Rachel Connors wrote in an email, promising a revised policy with revisions that would “encourage creative arts projects, as originally intended.” Continue reading >>>
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