Ok, so, in America, "free speech" has never been a reality and, sadly, many persons want freedom to express themselves, but don't want others to be free to express themselves; still, freedom of speech is a noble ideal. The reality is that Americans have almost as much freedom of expression as the citizens of other developed societies have. We're somewhere below Denmark and above Nigeria.
Pennsylvania still tolerates some of the free speech which was a foundation stone of its colonial history. This June, Kenneth J. Benson, a United States magistrate in Pittsburgh, ruled that even a prisoner has a right of free speech.
We all remember Mumia Abu-Jamal, the Philadelphia social activist. His case has attracted world-wide attention to Pennsylvania's barbarianism. Hundreds of persons have joined in an effort to save him from execution.
Daniel Faulkner, a Philadelphia policeman was shot in 1982. Apparently, the shooting was related to how or why he stopped a black driver for an alleged traffic violation. Faulkner died.
True to form, the Philadelphia police apparently tampered with witnesses and Mumia was convicted of the shooting. While waiting for Pennsylvania to kill him, Mumia had the temerity to write a book! It didn't say nice things about the prison system.
To make matters worse, the book, Live From Death Row, was published and attracted public attention; much of it favorable (except from the Right-Wing media).
The prison administrators were incensed. What was this? A prisoner saying unflattering things about prison? Getting favorable notice? A "murderer?" A social activist? And, a Blackactivist at that!
Certainly, a scum bag prisoner shouldn't be allowed to express himself, not a convicted murderer! Not a black man! Not a political activist who disagrees with the system and who's smart enough to be effective!!
Freedom of expression (so the Right-Wing view goes) should be limited to those few persons who are "worth." That means the few who agreed with the people in power. And, under no circumstances, should a low-life prisoner ever be allowed to express himself.
Administrators contrived to punish Mumia for expressing himself. Further, they resolved to stifle any future expression. To them, the prisoner's cardinal sin was to have written the truth about them. He had to be silenced. The only obstacle was the pesky US Constitution.
In Pennsylvania's prisons, the Constitution is not a big deal. It's routinely violated. Prison tsars easily skirt the Constitution's free speech silliness. They punished Mumia for "operating a business!"
One of the hundreds of prison rules is one that a prisoner can't "operate a business." Like all prison rules, this one can be interpreted in any way the administrators want. Prison officials decided that writing a book was operating a business. They punished Mumia.
Prison administrators hate being exposed. They really, reallyHATE it! They don't want you to read the truth about them and they'll do almost anything to prevent it.
(You can just imagine how they feel about this site on the World Wide Web. Contributors risk becoming another "suicide" in the prison hole!)
Prison administrators were terrified that the prisoner would continue to express himself. They opened his outgoing mail, including his legal mail. They read it, photocopied it and sent copies to big-shots at the Department of Corrections and, maybe, to police agencies as well.
They REALLYdidn't want this prisoner, this black man, to be able to express himself.
Mumia went to court complaining about them trampling his free speech right. On 8 June 1996, to everyone's surprise, Magistrate Benson vindicated the Constitutional claim. He said that even a prisoner is entitled to speak freely.
It's worth noting that, at this time in Pennsylvania, extremist Republican politicians are trying to block prisoners' access to the courts. The mind of the extremist Republican is a marvel of the absurd. They "reason" that since a prisoner needs access to the courts, he should be barred from the courts. Courts should be available only to those who don't need them and to the government to use against its people.
One extremist Republican senator whines that prisoners' law suits cost two million dollars a year. This guy is notorious for distortion and lies, but, lets accept his figure as correct. It's obvious that the cost of prisoners' suits could be reduced by the prison system treating prisoners decently. No amount of exaggeration or lying by the extremist senators can alter the fact that prison is a horror.
A two million dollar a year price tag is almost meaningless to the prison leviathan. Ten times that amount is spent on free meals for the guards. Five times that amount is spent on free false teeth and eyeglasses for the guards And no one seems able to even estimate how much is spent just to cover up the guards' crimes.
What's even more irritating, is how dumb the extremist senators are: marvels of the absurd! The prisoner who is denied orderly legal access, must turn to violence. The Republican extremists would prefer riots to suits. What do you figure a few deadly prison riots would cost? About a hundred times the cost of the suits! Dumb!
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