California crims granted print-out privileges

By Lisa M. Bowman

California prison inmates can receive letters containing material that's been printed from the internet, a federal judge has ruled.

Siding with prisoners, US District Judge Claudia Wilken issued a ruling this week banning the California Department of Corrections from continuing to enforce a policy that prohibits prisoners from receiving email and Web material in printed form.

Prisoners do not have internet access, but many are mailed copies of emails or news clippings that have been printed out from the web. Some also have signed up for prison pen pal sites, Web clearinghouses that allow people to strike up a correspondence with an inmate by sending an e-mail that is later printed out and forwarded to the prisoner.

The Department of Corrections said it had instituted the policy in some prisons to protect security and stave off a massive influx of emails to inmates. Lawyers for the department argued that internet material threatened jail security because it could contain coded messages and is not easily traceable.

Lisa M. Bowman writes for News.com