Read the revised CFR details here:

http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-9373.pdf

http://www.allgov.com/Controversies/ViewNews/Prisoners_Win_Right_to_Work_as_Reporters_100427

Prisoners Win Right to Work as Reporters
Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Inmates in federal penitentiaries will now be able to publish articles with bylines in magazines and newspapers, following a court-ordered change in Federal Bureau of Prisons’ regulations.

Three years ago, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the bureau’s policy of disallowing prisoners from being published. Federal prison officials insisted the ban was for the good of inmates, who might endure retaliation from other prisoners for the stories. But an appellate judge ruled the restriction limited inmates’ free speech.   The Bureau of Prisons did not officially change its regulations affecting prisoners and publishing until just recently.   The legal case was brought by Mark Jordan, who was punished by prison officials for publishing articles in “Off!” magazine in 2001. Jordan was originally imprisoned for a bank robbery committed in 1994, when he was 18 years old. In 1999, he was convicted of stabbing a prisoner to death.   Jordan was aided in his freedom of speech legal appeals by a team of law students from the Universityof Denver. -Noel Brinkerhoff

http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/04/26/26703.htm

Inmate Wins Right to Write from Prison

By TRAVIS SANFORD 
WASHINGTON (CN) – Three years after the 10th Circuit struck down Bureau of Prisons regulations prohibiting federal inmates from working as reporters or publishing under a byline, the Bureau has removed the offending language from the Code of Federal Regulations.

In 2001, convicted murderer Mark Jordan published two articles in “Off!” magazine, for which officials at the federal “supermax” prison in Florence, Colo. punished him by taking away his TV viewing and commissary privileges for 180 days.

Acting pro se, with free assistance from local law students, Jordan took his case to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, where U.S. District Judge Marcia S. Krieger ruled that the byline prohibition could have a chilling effect on the speech of federal inmates, as the only way they could avoid punishment was not to publish, even under a pseudonym – as Jordan had done for his second article.

Krieger found that the prohibition would also have a chilling effect on news organizations, because many would not publish articles without a byline. Journalists hold that attribution helps the reading public evaluate the credibility of the information in an article.

The Bureau of Prisons argued that inmates who published under a byline jeopardized security, by creating a threat to themselves if other inmates didn’t like what they wrote, or through establishing celebrity status, by which an inmate exert influence over other prisoners or prison officials.

 The Bureau of Prisons did not appeal Judge Krieger’s decision.

The post The Freedom to Write appeared first on Prison News Blog.

Reason I read Style:

I am very fortunate to have found mentors who help me. Recently, I made a friend here at Taft Camp. My new friend’s name is Steve, and I actually met Steve through Justin, another friend of mine who was recently released from Taft Camp. Steve had read some of my writing before he self-surrendered. As we became acquainted, he told me that his wife, Peggy, was Professor of English at a Nevada University. Peggy has since begun editing some of my writing. She sent two small books on writing, one of which was Style. That was the reason I read it.

What I learned from reading Style:

Writing does not come naturally or easily for me. It’s kind of like my running in that way. Those who read of the thousands of miles I run each year may consider me a natural athlete. The truth is that running is work for me, an exercise in will. Writing is the same. I write because I feel a real need to connect with society and feel as if my life has relevance, though writing itself does not come easily. I know that I have a tendency to write choppy sentences, and I do not consider myself gifted in the art of writing gracefully. Through discipline, I can write prolifically, and practice can help me write with clarity.

From reading Style, I learned that many writers struggle with the same challenges of choppy sentences. I hope that I picked up some techniques taht will help me improve as a writer.

How reading Style will contribute to my success upon release:

Regardless of what career I pursue upon release, I know that effective communication skills will help. I need to work on developing more effective ways to connect with my fellow citizens, and learning about writing techniques is a useful way to spend my final months in prison. I’ve been writing for many years, though I always look for guidance that can help me improve. Reading Style has given me new insight that I appreciate.

The post Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace appeared first on Prison News Blog.

As a long-term prisoner, I have no doubts about the destructiveness of this system. Statistics show that seven of every ten people who serve time in prison fail upon release. They find themselves arrested again for either technical violations of the conditions of release, or they return to prison for new criminal conduct. The responsibility is mine, I have always known, to prepare for success.

Since I could not contemplate a quarter century in prison, I thought about the first ten years. I set some clearly defined goals of what I wanted to achieve during that first decade. I wanted to educate myself. I wanted to contribute to society. I wanted to build a network of support. As I worked toward those goals, I began to grow more comfortable with the reality I had created for myself with the bad decisions of my early 20s. Yet I also understood that one day I would return to society. If I did not make serious progress, I would leave confinement into a prison of poverty and hopelessness. After 26 years of confinement, I knew that I would be nearly 50. I would not have a home. I would not have any clothes. I would not own a vehicle. Within less than two decades, I would be eligible for social security, yet I questioned whether my lack of a work history would entitle me to benefits. What would I do? I understood that starting a career at 50 would not be easy, especially since I had not lived in society since 1987.

Changes were occurring in the world. I realized that the onus was on me to prepare myself in every way for the obstacles that would be a part of my future. I had to do more than earn university degrees. I truly had to educate myself by expanding my vocabulary and building my communication skills. Writing was one way, I felt, that I could connect with society and prepare for the challenges that would await my return to society. I also had to keep in tip-top physical shape, as I could not allow my health to deteriorate. I had to reach beyond these boundaries and connect with other citizens. Those efforts, I hoped, would prepare me. That adjustment pattern has guided me through the first 21-plus years of my imprisonment. I will continue to rely upon the strategy as I move through these final years of my term. I am totally committed to the goals that I set for myself.

The post Why I Set High Standards for Myself in Prison appeared first on Prison News Blog.

I felt surprise at the shift in emotions. My imprisonment began in 1987, more than 21 years ago. I began serving the sentence when I was 23, and I have nearly crossed the fulcrum that would disperse the greater weight of my life in prison than in society. This term has been my only period of confinement and I have no history of violence. For the most part, I have grown numb to the boundaries that surround me, and the stigma of my predicament. Prison has been my life.

From the beginning, I have worked hard and consistently to reconcile with society for the bad decisions I made as a younger man. During the early years of my sentence, I lived with the idealism that I could earn my freedom through merit. With that goal as my beacon, I worked for years to educate myself, to contribute to society, and to prepare in every way so that I could emerge from confinement as a contributing citizen.

When Bill Clinton won the White House, I naively clung to the beam of his campaign. Slightly more than five years had passed since steel gates locked me inside prison walls. By then I had earned an undergraduate degree and was enrolled in graduate school. With dreams that my transformative adjustment would influence a favorable decision, I submitted my first petition for clemency.

In 1995, Hofstra University awarded my Masters Degree and I was beginning a PhD program at the University of Connecticut. I was 31-years-old, and well educated. After more than eight years of prison, I felt as ready as possible to begin living in society as a law-abiding, tax-paying citizen. In 1996, however, my prison case manager delivered a terse statement from the Department of Justice. For reasons that did not merit an explanation or review, my petition for clemency had been denied.

With the beginning of my second decade in prison, I resolved myself to the reality that I would serve several more years. The new Congress, led by Newt Gingrich, passed more punitive legislation. The hope for relief that carried me through my first decade vanished. I settled in to the likelihood that I would serve longer than a quarter century in federal prison.

In letting go of dreams that I could somehow influence the advancement of my release date, I had to change my adjustment pattern. I committed to the pursuit of activities that might bring meaning to my life while I served a lengthy prison term. In some way, I hoped my work would contribute to society.

With help from mentors, I worked to develop writing skills. Those efforts comforted me through my solitude. Simultaneously, writing offered opportunities to help others understand prisons, the people they held, and strategies to grow through confinement.

Since that adjustment shift, I have come to accept my imprisonment. I passed through all of the Clinton years, and now we have come to the final days of the Bush years. With so much prison behind me, I believed myself immune to the disease of despondency. Yet when I read that President Bush had commuted the prison terms of two others, I felt a terrific sense of loss.

I called my wife, who has endured nearly 10 years of this journey beside me. She had not yet heard the news of the commutations. I asked her to research the prisoners whose terms had been cut. I wanted to know if they had done more to earn freedom. Carole, as always, expressed her unyielding support. She could sense my sadness and offered her characteristic encouragement to lift my spirits.

“Your release will be much more magnificent,” she said. I didn’t know what my wife meant, but I loved her for helping me through an unanticipated difficult moment. I put an end to the day quite early, stretching out on my steel rack of a bed before 7:00 in the evening. I read for a while, prayed for strength, and drifted into sleep. When I awoke this morning, I felt more in control of my emotions. The Thanksgiving holiday was only two days away. Many years of prison were behind me and more were ahead, but I could still feel gratitude for the blessings in my life.

The post A Long-term Prisoner’s Reaction to Bush’s Clemency Orders appeared first on Prison News Blog.

In prison, however, educational pursuits have little influence over a man’s status. The prisons where I served my first decade were violent. Earning respect required an individual to instill fear in other men. A college degree would not yield much respect, but a man who was skillful in using a knife might win the privilege of a single cell. If a person was able to control a prison gang, others might pay homage to him. Such distinctions seemed trivial to me. I knew that I would walk out of prison gates one day, and I focused exclusively on steps I could take to prepare for the challenges I expected to face.

Later, as I served more time, I found that I developed a kind of seniority. Prisoners respect those who have served lengthy periods with dignity intact. Now I have more than 21 years of prison behind me. That length of time gives me the unwelcome distinction of being the prisoner with the most time in at my prison. Wherever administrators send me, I will be in the top two percent of prisoners with continuous time inside.

The crime for which I am serving my sentence may not offer me much distinction in prison. The length of time I have served is what seems to matter. More than the time, however, would be the blessings I have found since my sentence began. Prisoners admire me because I have published several books and because I have created a life for myself while serving a lengthy sentence. Despite the limitations of confinement, I have resources in the world, employment opportunities that await me, an extensive network of support, and an extraordinary marriage with an exceptionally beautiful woman who married me in a prison visiting room.

Other prisoners would like to serve time in the way that I have, as my life surpasses that of most long-term prisoners. Anyone who makes the adjustment choices that I made can prepare for release and find meaning. I describe strategies that helped me in articles available at www.criminal-indictment.com.

The post Does Writing Influence My Status in Prison? appeared first on Prison News Blog.

Bill Tancer is a technology writer and search engine advisor of some repute. He writes a regular column for Time.com that is called “The Science of Search.” Through this book the author describes strategies that he has learned from researching the patterns of tens of millions of Internet users.

Although I will not be able to access the Internet until my release comes, by reading books like Click, I educate myself about steps I can take to improve the performance of the Web sites that feature my work. Those who operate Web sites of their own will find value in Tancer’s book.

The post Click: What Millions of People are Doing Online and Why it Matters by Bill Tancer appeared first on Prison News Blog.