Benning v. Dozier

The First Amendment protects prisoners’ right to communicate with individuals outside prison walls. But the Georgia Department of Corrections censored Ralph Benning’s email correspondence, filtering out emails he sent to his sister and to a religious organization based on broad regulations allowing them to curtail outgoing correspondence.

Under ordinary First Amendment principles, prisons are allowed extraordinary discretion to censor incoming mail but are limited in how they can censor outgoing mail. But the district court held that rule about outgoing mail didn’t apply to outgoing email.

The MacArthur Justice Center and Arnold & Porter are proud to represent Mr. Benning on appeal and are asking the Eleventh Circuit to make clear that email is simply electronic mail and that for all the reasons the Supreme Court has said that prisons are restricted in how they can censor outgoing physical mail, they are equally limited in how they can censor outgoing email.

Letting prisoners correspond with friends, family, and religious leaders isn’t just the constitutional thing to do; it’s also good public policy. Study after study shows that prisoners with ties to the outside world do better in prison and are less likely to recidivate when released. The MacArthur Justice Center is committed to fighting for prisoners’ right to keep in touch with their communities on the outside.