Court Opinion

ID: 9488088
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:35:59.485724+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:41.175243
License: Public Domain

WOLLMAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Although I agree that this case is not moot, I would hold that the district court should have adopted the magistrate judge’s thoughtful recommendation.
I
This is an outgoing prisoner correspondence case, remarkable only for the hatefulness of the invective employed, in which an inmate, in the full knowledge that his letters to a friend outside the prison would be read by prison authorities, wrote comments about prison officials and speculated about the impact his insults might have on the officials responsible for reading outgoing inmate mail. Such outgoing correspondence criticizing or insulting prison authorities has been held to come within the protection of the First Amendment. Procunier v. Martinez, 416 U.S. 396, 413, 94 S.Ct. 1800, 1811, 40 L.Ed.2d 224 (1974); Loggins v. Delo, 999 F.2d 364, 367 (8th Cir.1993); Brooks v. Andolina, 826 F.2d 1266, 1268 (3rd Cir.1987); McNamara v. Moody, 606 F.2d 621, 624 (5th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 447 U.S. 929, 100 S.Ct. 3028, 65 L.Ed.2d 1124 (1980).
Leonard put letters in the normal outgoing mail channels in the hope they would eventually reach addressee Daniel Berkenbile. Because there is no indication that Berkenbile is a not a real person or that the letters were otherwise intended only for the eyes of prison officials, the letters constituted legitimate outgoing correspondence entitled to First Amendment protection. Thornburgh v. Abbott; 490 U.S. 401, 411-12, 109 S.Ct. 1874, 1880-81, 104 L.Ed.2d 459 (1989); Martinez, 416 U.S. at 413-14, 94 S.Ct. at 1811-12; Loggins, 999 F.2d at 367-68; cf. Turner v. Safley, 482 U.S. 78, 89-93, 107 S.Ct. 2254, 2261-64, 96 L.Ed.2d 64 (1987) (discussing standards to be applied to prisoner correspondence cases, without specific reference to outgoing abusive mail); Smith v. Delo, 995 F.2d 827, 829-30 (8th Cir.1993) (same), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 114 S.Ct. 710, 126 L.Ed.2d 676 (1994).
Prisoner speech can be limited only if the regulation is “reasonably related to legitimate penological interests.” Safley, 482 U.S. at 89, 107 S.Ct. at 2261. Under this rule, inmate correspondence may be' subject to limited regulation in furtherance of the legitimate prison interest in order and security. Martinez, 416 U.S. at 413, 94 S.Ct. at 1811. However, outgoing inmate mail usually does not “pose a serious threat to prison order and security,” Abbott, 490 U.S. at 411, 109 S.Ct. at 1880, and is therefore unrestricted unless, it relates to escape plans, ongoing criminal activity, blackmail, or extortion, id. at 412, 109 S.Ct. at 1881; Martinez, 416 U.S. at 413, 94 S.Ct. at 1811. No such illegal activity is involved here; instead, the court restricts Leonard’s letters on the basis that Leonard’s invective by its very nature created a threat to prison order and security.
This would be true had Leonard spoken to prisop officials, because such inflammatory speech inside .a prison produces an immediate physical threat to order. Goff v. Dailey, *377991 F.2d 1437, 1439 (8th Cir.1993), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 114 S.Ct. 564, 126 L.Ed.2d 464 (1993). But this is a mail case. Outgoing mail is not regulated as strictly as in-prison communication for the good reason that it “cannot reasonably be expected to present a danger to the community inside the prison.” Abbott, 490 U.S. at 411-12, 109 S.Ct. at 1881 (citing Martinez, 416 U.S. at 416, 94 S.Ct. at 1813). A holding that Leonard’s mailed invective itself violated the verr bal abuse rule ignores the carefully nuanced structure the Supreme Court has erected to allow for the discipline of inmates whose confrontational comments were never intended to leave the prison community, while at the same time protecting inmates who use the mail to express perhaps identical views outside prison walls where those views cannot harm prison order and security. Andolina, 826 F.2d at 1268 (applying structure erected in Safley, 482 U.S. at 88-91, 107 S.Ct. at 2261-63, and Martinez, 416 U.S. at 412-14, 94 S.Ct. at 1811-12, and citing McNamara, 606 F.2d at 624, to the effect that if identical statement were oral rather than mailed, punishment would be allowed); see Abbott, 490 U.S. at 411-14, 109 S.Ct. at 1880-82 (further articulating Safley/Martinez rationale).
That Leonard intended his comments to come to the attention of the prison authorities does not distinguish this case from those in which the correspondence was held protected. All inmates know their mail can be read by prison officials; indeed, in all the similar cases, the inmate acknowledged the possibility of interception and tweaked the official reader or otherwise clearly expressed the hope that his mail would be read by prison officials, Loggins, 999 F.2d at 365 (acknowledging the possibility and plainly intending to tweak the official reader); McNamara, 606 F.2d at 623 n. 2 (showing certain knowledge the invective would be read). Nevertheless, these and all other post-Martinez decisions on point have uniformly protected the outgoing mail rights of inmates who,- like Leonard, were trying to reach legitimate correspondents.
II
I also disagree that fair evidentiary support is the issue in this ease, for the factual findings of the Iowa courts are in effect accepted by Leonard. Rather, Leonard argues that under well-established legal precedent, the key fact found by the courts is not enough to support the conclusion that his comments were “directed toward” prison officials, as defined in Loggins, 999 F.2d at 367. The Iowa tribunals’ conclusions that the derogatory comments were directed toward prison officials hinged on the fact that Leonard knew.it was likely his letters would be intercepted. Committee decision, App. at 137; District Court decision, App. at 161; Supreme Court decision, App. at 173-74. As the discussion above shows, the fact that a prisoner knows authorities will read his mail does not support the conclusion that mail legitimately addressed outside the prison is directed toward prison officials.
One would hope that Warden Nix is too busy with important work to bother to screen outgoing prisoner correspondence. Those prison staff members who perform this duty are presumably inured to the hate-filled diatribes of the Stephen Leonards of the world and thus undoubtedly treat such correspondence with the disdain it deserves.
I respectfully dissent.-