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Denver law students fight for federal inmatesā€™ free speech
By Gitanjali Hazarika

A three-member student team from Denver University's Sturm College of Law belonging to Civil Rights and Disability Law Clinic is trying to lift government restrictions imposed on federal inmates. The trio, under their professor Laura Rovner, has been working on an inmate's case for a year now and recently argued in the federal court for the prisoners' free speech rights.

The Civil Rights and Disability Law Clinic at the law school specializes in prisoner-rights and discrimination cases. In their argument, the students have targeted a U.S. Bureau of Prisons rule that bars federal inmates from acting as reporters and publishing articles.

The Sturm students are arguing the case of Mark Jordan, an inmate at "Supermax," the ultra-high-security federal prison in Florence. In 1991, Jordan, 31, was convicted of bank robbery. While still serving sentence at the adjacent U.S. Penitentiary in Florence, in 1991, Jordan stabbed an inmate to death. This act booked him in for another 41 years behind bars.

Jordan has published several articles. The prison officials objected to the content of one of his articles, Off! — a piece on prison life and criminal justice in a New York . Asked to stop writing, Jordan began to post articles and other writings under a pseudonym. However, that too was prohibited. Left with no options to "express his thoughts and ideas," Jordan and his student-lawyers' team are now seeking a ruling that would allow him to publish his articles again.

One of the student attorneys, Jack Hobaugh, stated that the federal rule is an "irrational and exaggerated response" to the inmates' views and thoughts. The authorities feel that the prison life could disrupt order and threaten security. They argued that prisoners' free speech should have limitations to enable the federal government ensure running of safe prisons.

Incidentally, the Colorado's U.S. District Court's "student practice rule" permits law students under the guidance of a licensed attorney to try civil cases with the judge's permission, a practice prevalent for two years now. The students presented their arguments before the U.S. District Judge Marcia Kreiger who is yet to give her verdict.

Posted on: 06/05/2007 03:08 AM | Number of feedback 0

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