Appeal filed in Baxter County jail mail suit

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An appeal has been filed seeking to reverse an Arkansas federal judge’s ruling that a postcard-only policy for incoming inmate mail at the Baxter County Detention Center is acceptable.The Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), a Florida-based organization, filed the original suit in August 2017 in an effort to have the postcard-only-policy declared unconstitutional.The HRDC lost the first round and has taken its case to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis.




HRDC alleges the rule requiring inmate mail to be written only on postcards violates the organization’s First Amendment rights by preventing it from sending non-postcard-size material it produces to prisoners in the Baxter County jail. The organization also claimed its right to due process was violated when the county jail did not specifically inform the group why its mail was being rejected.

After a bench trial in Fayetteville in January, Federal District Judge Timothy Brooks of the Western District of Arkansas issued a ruling on the HRDC suit in April.

It was a win for the county. The judge wrote the Florida group’s 14th Amendment rights to due process were only “technically violated” when Baxter County jail staff sent four pieces of mail back in August 2016 without any explanation why they were being rejected. Other pieces of mail the HRDC said it sent in “waves” were clearly marked why they had been refused.

Judge Brooks found HRDC had not suffered in a major way by the rejection of the few pieces of mail returned without proper notification. He awarded the group $4 in damages on the due process claim and dismissed HRDC’s allegation of First Amendment rights violations outright.

The judge also turned down a request by HRDC to approve more than $145,000 in legal fees and almost $11,600 in costs alleged to have been spent by the organization in litigating the jail mail suit. Judge Brooks ordered each party be responsible for its own expenses.

It is Judge Brooks’ decision HRDC is appealing to the Eighth Circuit.

Judges on the Eight Circuit of Appeals have already found one postcard-only-mail policy acceptable within fairly narrow confines. The case on which the ruling was made involved a jail in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, with similar requirements as those enforced in Baxter County.

The three-judge panel cautioned, however, the Cape Girardeau ruling was not a blanket approval, and each situation where the postcard-only policy becomes an issue should be looked at on a case-by-case basis.

Other federal courts have ruled the policy is unconstitutional. The conflicting rulings increases the likelihood the issue could wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court, legal experts predict.

Eleven groups from across the country have joined HRDC’s appeal by filing “friends of the court briefs.”

Jason Owens, the attorney for Baxter County, filed a motion with the court to deny such a large number of groups permission to intervene in the appeal on HRDC’s side. He characterized it as “an appeal by flood approach” that should be rejected by the court. In an order filed last month, however, the court permitted all 11 groups to participate.

The HRDC describes itself as a non-profit charitable organization based in Lake Worth, Florida. It publishes a wide variety of material, including Prison Legal News. The publication is described as a “soft cover magazine” containing news about prisons, jails, prisoners’ rights and other articles of interest to incarcerated individuals.

The suit originally named Sheriff John Montgomery and other employees of the sheriff’s office as defendants. An Arkansas federal court ruled they were to be dismissed from the suit as individuals, leaving the county as the only defendant.

A similar federal lawsuit filed by HRDC against the Union County jail in south Arkansas over its postcard-only-mail-policy has been put on hold until the Eighth Circuit makes a decision on the Baxter County case.

The Baxter County Detention Center adopted the postcard-only-policy in 2012. The policy covers all but “legal mail,” which can be sent to and from a number of entities, including courts, lawyers or probation and parole officers.

There is no indication when the Eighth Circuit might rule on HRDC’s appeal.

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