Prison Legal News, a Seattle-based magazine that reports on prisoner rights, has filed suit against the director of the Department of Corrections Gene Johnson and other prison officials and employees of the Charlottesville federal court for preventing inmates from receiving the magazine.
According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit alleges that the magazine has been off-limits to prisoners since 2007.
The suit also claims that policies banning prisoners from gift subscriptions to the magazine violate free speech, due process and other rights of the prisoners.
"Although prisoners lose many of their constitutional rights when they are incarcerated, the First Amendment does not end at the prison door," said Prison Legal News attorney Jeffrey Fogel to the AP.
According to the magazine’s editor, Paul Wright, Virginia inmates subscribed to the magazine from its beginning. The magazine is a project of the Human Rights Defense Center.
