In a landmark legal settlement, the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry (ADCRR) has agreed to pay $2.858 million in a federal civil rights lawsuit brought by the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC). This case, centered around the unconstitutional censorship of HRDC’s publication, Prison Legal News (PLN), marks the largest attorneys’ fee recovery in a prison censorship case in U.S. history.
The lawsuit, which began in 2015, challenged ADCRR’s censorship of PLN on the grounds that the publication contained “sexually explicit material” according to ADCRR mail policy. The censored issues included legal reports on cases where prisoners were sexually assaulted or harassed by prison staff. ADCRR’s actions included censoring these issues without notifying HRDC or providing any opportunity for administrative appeals, a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process rights.
The litigation came to a head when HRDC filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona. The court ruled in favor of HRDC, declaring ADCRR’s mail policy both facially unconstitutional and unconstitutional as applied to PLN. Additionally, the court found that ADCRR violated HRDC’s due process rights by failing to provide notice or an opportunity to appeal the censorship decisions.
Paul Wright, HRDC’s founder and executive director, expressed his frustration and relief following the settlement. “It is outrageous that we had to file a lawsuit because Arizona prison officials would censor our award-winning magazine for quoting federal judges’ written opinions on the rights of prisoners not to be raped by prison staff. But even more outrageous is how vigorously they fought this case for nine years to prevent prisoners from learning what their rights are to be free from sexual assaults by staff.”
Wright also extended gratitude to their co-counsel, Rosen Bien Galvan Grunfeld LLP and Ballard Spahr LLP, for their persistent support in this prolonged legal battle. The court’s final decision required ADCRR to pay $2.65 million to cover HRDC’s attorneys’ fees and expenses, alongside an earlier payment of $208,865.62 for appellate fees.
The case also highlighted critical interpretations by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which partially affirmed and partially reversed the District Court’s ruling. The Ninth Circuit narrowed the definition of “sexually explicit material” to content that graphically depicts nudity or sex acts, excluding textual descriptions like those in PLN from the ban unless they reached an extensive level of graphic detail.
Despite these legal battles, the outcome ensures that all previously censored issues of PLN will be delivered to ADCRR subscribers. This victory not only affirms the First Amendment rights of HRDC and its readers but also sets a precedent for protecting the rights of prisoners to access information.
