Opinion ID: 296468
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Prisoner Legal Aid

Text: 79 Johnson v. Avery, 393 U.S. 483, 89 S.Ct. 747, 21 L.Ed.2d 718 (1969), instructs that states must permit prisoners to help fellow inmates prepare habeas corpus petitions, subject to reasonable regulation, absent a sufficient showing by the state that through some other means it provides prisoners with an adequate substitute for the 'jailhouse lawyer.' Cf. Ex parte Hull, 312 U.S. 546, 61 S.Ct. 640, 85 L.Ed. 1034 (1941) (state may not require that habeas petition be approved by a corrections official to see that it was 'properly drawn'); Gilmore v. Lynch, 319 F.Supp. 105 (N.D.Cal., filed May 28, 1970) (3-judge court) (woefully inadequate prison law library held unlawfully restricts prisoners' access to courts). The failure of any such showing in this case makes it mandatory that New York permit prisoner aid to the extent required by Johnson. Johnson's explicit permission to states reasonably to regulate this right, however, validates the Green Haven rule requiring prisoners to apply to the Warden for permission to help other inmates with legal activities. There would be a violation of Johnson only if the Warden denied permission, or if the conditions on which he granted it were unreasonable. 45 80 Since Sostre never requested permission, there is no cause for an injunction to enforce the Johnson rule. We assume that permission would be granted as a matter of course, subject only to reasonable conditions. Nor can we consider unreasonable the Green Haven rule forbidding prisoners from sharing their personal law books with one another. This regulation would not prohibit Sostre, for example, from recommending legal source material to other inmates. We do not see how they would be unduly burdened by being required to acquire the books through prison officials 46 rather than directly from Sostre. See Gilmore v. Lynch, supra (upholding prison rule prohibiting jailhouse lawyers from keeping in their cells legal material pertaining to other prisoners). In a closely related situation, we held that a prisoner could be refused permission to keep 'law books' in his cell where there was no allegation he was denied use of the prison library. Williams v. Wilkins, 315 F.2d 396, 397 (2d Cir. 1963). We cannot ignore the concern of prison officials that strongwilled inmates might exact hidden and perhaps non-monetary fees in return for nominally free privileges at the inmates' private lending library. 47 81