Yeah, about That Muzzle Prison Journalist Thing

After an outcry, The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision has reversed a policy that would have largely prohibited releasing creative work to the outside.

Releasing anything would have required a months long review process, and they would be prohibited from getting any money for their work.

Clearly, the goal here was to prevent prison journalists from reporting on what goes on inside.

No one is concerned about someone releasing a novel, or a portrait of dogs playing poker, they just want to muzzle prisoners:

The New York state prison agency rescinded rules blocking incarcerated writers and artists from publishing their work Wednesday, a day after New York Focus exposed the policy.

A May 11 directive established a stringent, months-long approval process for people in New York state prisons to publish creative work — including books, art, music, poetry, film scripts, and other writing — outside prison walls. The policy gave prison superintendents the power to block publication of work that violated any of a number of broad rules — including portraying the prison department in a way that could “jeopardize safety or security.” It also prohibited incarcerated people from getting paid for their creative work.

The Department of Corrections and Community Supervision told New York Focus that it planned to apply the restrictions to journalism, which wasn’t mentioned in the directive. Incarcerated writers and watchdogs expressed concerns that the rules were meant to silence information-sharing and possibly violated the First Amendment. .

“The Constitution does not give prison officials a choice whether to respect the fundamental rights of incarcerated New Yorkers,” said Antony Gemmell, director of detention litigation for the New York Civil Liberties Union. “DOCCS should be embarrassed that this policy ever saw the light of day. We’re glad to hear that it’s being rescinded.”

DOCCS had not published the directive to its website until New York Focus reached out last week.

It really is remarkably just how aggressively law enforcement at every level tries to shut down even the most basic possibility of accountability for themselves.

Nice that they were forced to backtrack.