Pendleton inmates insist on right to newspaper read article about prison health care

Offender Robert Holleman, who was featured in the report, said he believed the section was removed intentionally so inmates could not read the article.

“I have a First Amendment right to read a newspaper, and this facility does not get to censure (sic) our newspapers just because there is a story in it that they do not like,” he wrote Oct. 13 in a letter to The Herald Bulletin.

PCF Recreation Supervisor Lisa K. Ash said in an email to PCF spokeswoman Michelle Rains that when she arrived to work her shift in the library at 8:30 a.m. Oct. 13, she was told by offender clerks that the front section of the newspaper had been removed from all three copies. The front sections had been removed before the copies were picked up at the information desk by the previous shift supervisor, according to Ash.

She said she contacted Duane Alsip, assistant superintendent for operations at the facility, to let him know about the problem.

“I suggested to him that we should go online and print out copies of both articles for the (prison) population to be able to read. He agreed and said he would also notify the superintendent,” she said. “I then printed out 3 copies of both articles and allowed the offenders to check them out with their ID’s (just as we do the newspapers).”