Florida Prison Confiscates Newspapers After Deciding Puzzle Game Might Be A Way To Send ‘Coded Messages’

Censorship is a priority for prison systems. Despite publicly claiming to be instrumental in the act of rehabilitation," correctional facilities generally engage in the sort of non-productive paranoia that ensures the only resources prisoners have are... other prisoners. And we're all supposed to act like it's a surprise when people re-offend. Or worse, exit this rehabilitation" process more criminally-minded than when they were remanded to the custody of the state.

Without even going into the massive amount of restrictions awaiting those who exit prison, there's nothing about the process that actually allows people to better themselves while paying down their debt to society. Online access is stifled. The only books allowed are those deemed so innocuous they can't do anything more than help prisoners pass the time. Legal research is discouraged because it might allow prisoners to realize their rights are violated regularly.

Anything of a sexual nature is prohibited. Anything discussing anything slightly related to criminal activity is forbidden. Anything that shows up in a keyword search for prison" is considered too risky to be accessed by prisoners, which means George Orwell, Franz Kafka, and Albert Camus are persona non grata when it comes to reading material.

The criminal justice system prefers to treat everyone like adults (to maximize punishment), but once handed over to the prison system, they're treated like children. And that's if they're lucky. In most cases, their humanity is never recognized at all.

Because prison systems are run by government employees and overseen by massive bureaucracies (and that includes those that have been privatized"), Orwell, Kafka, and Camus still play a part in the outcome of this combination, even if their literature is verboten.

That's how insanity like this happens, as reported by Elizabeth Weill-Greenburg for The Appeal:

In July, officials at Avon Park Correctional Institution impounded two issues of the Key West Citizen over concerns with the Celebrity Cipher," a syndicated word puzzle that appears next to the crossword. Staff asserted that the game violates a Florida Department of Corrections rule prohibiting publication[s] ... written in code," according to a copy of the impoundment notices shared with The Appeal. The issues were impounded pending a review by the FDC Literature Review Committee, which is scheduled to meet on August 31.

The Celebrity Cipher is a syndicated game that asks readers to decipher a celebrity quote by solving a puzzle in which each letter is replaced by a different letter. The Citizen publishes the Celebrity Cipher on the same page as the Sudoku, daily horoscopes, and Dear Abby" advice column.

This act of censorial stupidity (which the Florida Department of Corrections has refused to comment on) is receiving attention from rights groups - not just because it's inexplicable, but because it's an obviously bullshit use of the Correction Department's powers.

This is from a letter sent to the prison by the ACLU:

The Celebrity Cipher is a puzzle created from quotations from well-known people, living or dead, that the reader has to decipher. It is a puzzle game syndicated by Andrews McNeel Syndication and is carried in newspapers across the country, usually printed near comic strips or crossword puzzles. The Key West Times normally publishes the cipher on the same pages as a Sudoku puzzle, crossword, Dear Abby column, and the horoscopes. This game is for entertainment, and it does not contain hidden messages for incarcerated people. The game is not written in code;" nor is it apparent how the game could be used to create coded messages indecipherable by staff."

Included in the letter are two examples of the national syndicated Celebrity Cipher."

The prison is correct: it is written in code." But the coded message goes to everyone who purchases the newspaper, not just inmates. And it's insane to believe a nationally syndicated puzzle is being used to pass messages for or to inmates.

Newspapers have always been given the utmost in First Amendment protections. These protections extend not only to their sources, but their readers. Even if the puzzle is not necessarily newsworthy," it is part of a paper that gives prisoners access to issues of public interest. They may be incarcerated, but they're still members of the public.

Using the illogical argument anything not written in plain English is off-limits to prisoners is going to generate lawsuits and courtroom losses - something this prison (and the state agency that oversees it) has chosen to ignore in favor of limiting access to issues of public interest.

This same point is made in the Florida Press Association's letter to the Florida Department of Corrections:

We do not believe the puzzle can be used by inmates to create coded message" or communications written in code," as is asserted. The puzzles are created for the reading public to solve for their own entertainment. They do not contain any hidden messages for inmates nor is there any evidence that they teach ways to code messages for secret communications by inmates. Further, broadly interpreting the puzzle this way apparently makes the entire newspaper off-limits, which seems overly punitive.

We believe the impoundment action infringes upon the First Amendment rights of both the newspaper's publisher and its incarcerated subscribers. The justification offered for the ban is unsupported by the contents of the impounded issue. There is no explanation as to how the puzzle presents a threat to security, order, or rehabilitative objectives of the correctional system or the safety of others, and nothing in the content can reasonably be interpreted to present such a threat.

This is immediately followed by the Press Association calling bullshit on Avon Correctional's stupidity:

The U.S. Supreme Court's test that there be a rational connection to safety and security has not been met. Rather, the decision appears to be arbitrary and irrational.

This was a stupid move by the prison. If it doesn't roll this back, it's going to get sued by people who actually know the law. And there's really nothing that looks worse than not knowing the law while being in the business of law enforcement. What happened here can only very charitably be considered an error. What it most likely is what it always is: just another way to let prisoners know they don't matter.