Updating websites from prison by paper mail

By Cory Doctorow at 12:26 am Sunday, Apr 17

Prison inmates are using posting to websites through intermediaries who accept new material by postal mail. I've gotten the occasional letter in response to my columns from prison inmates -- some flames, some kudos -- and they're the only proper hand-written letters I've received in years. Universally, they tend to run long -- I assume that's an artifact of having a lot of time on one's hands.

Using their telephone and mail privileges, plus a network of family, friends or activists, inmates are contributing to websites to plead their case, pillory prosecutors or find pen pals...

In 2000, inmates successfully fought an Arizona law that prohibited helping inmates to access the Internet and punished those who transmitted items to someone for posting on the web. The law was passed after a murder victim's family complained about the killer's Internet pen pal ad. A federal district judge struck down the law in 2003.

The American Civil Liberties Union pursued that case on behalf of the Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty. The group publishes websites for about 500 U.S. death row inmates, and pen pal solicitations for about 700 more, said co-founder Tracy Lamourie.

Link (via /.)