A jail cell with metal bars and bunk beds.
ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The Human Rights Defense Center is suing Lancaster County, arguing it has prevented inmates from reading its legal news publications.
A violation of HRDC’s First Amendment rights is alleged in an Oct. 8 federal lawsuit that also names Warden Cheryl Steberger as a defendant. The dispute began in July, when the HRDC started receiving returned mail from the Lancaster County Prison.
By October, the HRDC had received 125 items, including copies of its Criminal Legal News, Prison Legal News and Prison Education Guide. They were marked “not legal mail.”
“Defendants failed to provide HRDC with any notice of these censorship decisions or any opportunity to appeal these censorship decisions,” the lawsuit says. “Therefore, Defendants’ policies and practices also violate HRDC’s Fourteenth Amendment rights to due process.”
HRDC has been forced to file similar litigation around the country, winning an injunction in August that forces the Minnesota Department of Corrections to modify its vendor application forms regarding who can send books to and other publications to inmates.
HRDC advocates for the rights of people held in prisons. It publishes self-help reference books for prisoners and advocates through litigation and public speaking.
“For decades, the United States Supreme Court has recognized that the freedom to read and correspond with the outside world while incarcerated carries important benefits to both prisoners and society as a whole,” the lawsuit says.
“To this end, plaintiff, HRDC provides prisoners across the United States with publications about their legal and civil rights, as well as options for accessing education while incarcerated.”
Some of its materials are requested and some are sent unsolicited. Lancaster County’s mail policy states that starting in 2019, envelopes would be thrown out before reaching inmates so their address must be included on the letter inside. In 2024, Lancaster decided all personal mail must be sent care of Securus Digital Mail Center in Tampa, Fla.
“Although the Prison’s posted mail policies and practices do not expressly address the mailing of books and publications to prisoners, the Prison’s mail policies and practices have resulted in a complete ban on books and magazines mailed by HRDC in violation of HRDC’s rights as a publisher under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment,” the suit says.
Philadelphia attorney John Stapleton joined HRDC lawyers in filing the case.
