I’m writing this update from my new home at the Idaho State Correctional Institution, a medium security facility. Prior to my transfer earlier this month from the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, I wondered how staff at this facility would respond to my efforts as an outreach journalist.
It didn’t take long before I found out: By accusing me of coding secret messages to my father in First Amend This! An IDOC Newsletter, Oct ’23.
The monthly prison newsy, as always, was sent to my father through the prison messaging service JPay to be given a light edit and published to my blog. This is how we’ve done it for going on four years–provided a public service to the IDOC community and beyond. (Copies of the newsletter can also be found through JSTOR, a free academic database made available to the world online.)
The allegation arrived with a censorship notification over JPay on October 12th, 10 days after my initial attempt to send out the October issue.
Here’s a look at the Editor’s Note, which highlights the month’s stories:
Wrongfully convicted Joseph LaCroix to be reimbursed for his time incarcerated; Money, Inc. reopens old wounds while wafting over facts; a prison nurse and a former prosecutor are brought up on criminal charges; the Idaho Prison Arts Collective is holding a benefit fundraiser; and why the hell won’t NAMI respond to requests for information from within our facilities?
The decision to censor the newsletter was the decision of one IDOC employee. By failing to identify themselves and provide me with an Electric Mail Contraband and Denial Form, that employee is in violation of IDOC policy 503.02.01.001 (Telephone and Electronic Communications — Resident).
Not only has the latest newsletter been censored but my latest assignment for the Prison Journalism Project Advanced Nonfiction Writing Workshop–into which I gained admission by virtue of my writing–is now experiencing a serious and mysterious delay in transit, all while feedback from my previous assignment has yet to be granted safe passage through JPay…
Because the threat carried by allegations of coding messages can range from returning me to max (and possibly ad-seg) to imposing long-term restrictions on my limited family contact, I now have much to deliberate.
I welcome any advice from my readers, fellow advocates and journalists.
— Patrick Irving 10.18.23