ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 13, 1997 TAG: 9702130066
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
FREE PUBLICATIONS sent to death row inmates by church groups won't be tossed in the trash anymore.
Mecklenburg Correctional Center has changed a policy that permitted inmates to subscribe to Playboy and similar magazines while blocking free publications from religious groups.
A complaint from a 20-year-old on death row led prison officials to change their policy, The Washington Times reported Wednesday. As of this week, officials at Mecklenburg were screening religious pamphlets and magazines mailed to all inmates rather than tossing them away.
Prison officials initially told Steven Roach, 20, the state's youngest death-row inmate, he could no longer receive his monthly copy of ``The Believer's Voice of Victory,'' a free Christian publication, ``without an approved paid subscription from the company,'' according to prison documents.
Prison officials said Roach's magazine was being discarded with the large quantities of free religious materials sent to the prison near Boydton, which houses all state prisoners sentenced to die.
``We were just being inundated with junk mail,'' said David Botkins, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections. ``It becomes a fire hazard, and it becomes a security issue.''
Death row inmates receive mounds of unsolicited religious material, much more than other prisoners, Botkins said. All incoming mail is screened, including paid magazine subscriptions approved by the prison.
Inmates can subscribe to Playboy, for instance, although a screening committee reviews the publication each month before releasing it to the prisoners.
Roach, convicted of fatally shooting an elderly neighbor in Greene County in 1993, said he had been receiving the religious magazine for about a year, but it suddenly stopped coming.
He appealed to the wardens at Mecklenburg, but his request for the magazine was denied.
Roach next asked a religious rights watchdog group to intervene.
The Rutherford Institute, based in Charlottesville, convinced officials at Mecklenburg to change their policy on free religious mail.
``It became a religious freedom issue,'' said Rutherford attorney David Melton. ``What they were saying at Mecklenburg is `If you can show it's paid for, you're allowed to get it.' But a great many religious organizations don't charge for their subscriptions.''
Botkins said the prison wasn't trying to deny Roach his religious freedom and said he will now receive the magazine.
``Free religious materials are being more closely scrutinized than before in an effort to see that every inmate is getting what he is requesting, so long as it doesn't violate security or prison policy,'' Botkins said.
Melton said he hopes Virginia's 51 other prisons will follow suit and amend their policies on religious mailings.
``These are literally individuals who have been cut off by society and subjected to the ultimate sanctions society can impose on them,'' he said. ``We shouldn't deprive them of any means of spiritual sustenance which they can obtain.''
LENGTH: Medium: 64 linesby CNB