THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 23, 1996 TAG: 9602230005
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Del. William P. Robinson Jr. of Norfolk wants inmates in Virginia prisons to be free to speak to the news media. For years this was a common practice, but the Allen administration has severely restricted prisoners' rights in the past two years - especially prisoners' access to the press.
Robinson introduced HB 980 in the General Assembly to ensure the Department of Corrections allows inmates to have unmonitored telephone conversations with their attorneys and to allow reporters to interview willing inmates. Although the bill would allow the Department of Corrections director to set visiting rules to maintain prison security and ensure personal safety, he could not prohibit visits.
The bill passed the House of Delegates and now is in committee in the Senate, which has deleted the portion of the bill which forbids the director from preventing visits.
We urge acceptance of HB 980 in its original form.
In recent months the Department of Corrections has severely curtailed ``in-person'' interviews with inmates and denied many altogether. A spokesperson for Director Ron Angelone said each interview request is assessed individually, but she conceded that face-to-face interviews with Virginians behind bars are rare.
``The director believes he has no obligation to provide a platform for inmates to profess their innocence or to complain about the department,'' the spokesperson said.
We believe Mr. Angelone has a duty to allow the press access to prisoners. For democracy to survive, the press must serve as a watchdog of government. It can't do that in the area of corrections if reporters are locked out of the penitentiaries.
``These are public institutions funded by public money,'' says Robinson. ``The public has a right to know what's going on in there and who better to do that than the press? You're not going to get the straight story just relying on the department.''
It was Virginia's own George Mason who declared that ``The freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty and can never be restrained by despotic governments.''
We believe the Department of Corrections is excessively restraining inmates' contact with the press. This may partially be a result of the embarrassment the department suffered after a loaded gun was discovered last year on death row.
Freedom of speech is not always pretty. Indeed, it is galling to most law-abiding citizens when an inmate - especially a violent felon - is given a public forum to whine about scratchy prison toilet paper or bad food. Public reaction to this is often: ``Who cares?''
But society cannot just lock up convicts and forget them. What happens behind bars is done in the name of the citizens who have a right to know how their tax dollars are being spent.
Most of the prisoners will return to society some day, so it is not in society's best interest to turn its back on them now. by CNB