Senate Introduced Bill B00942

SENATE BILL No. 942

January 26, 2000, Introduced by Senators HOFFMAN, MC COTTER and YOUNG and

referred to the Committee on Judiciary.

A bill to amend 1953 PA 232, entitled

"An act to revise, consolidate, and codify the laws relating to

probationers and probation officers, to pardons, reprieves, com-

mutations, and paroles, to the administration of correctional

institutions, correctional farms, and probation recovery camps,

to prisoner labor and correctional industries, and to the super-

vision and inspection of local jails and houses of correction; to

provide for the siting of correctional facilities; to create a

state department of corrections, and to prescribe its powers and

duties; to provide for the transfer to and vesting in said

department of powers and duties vested by law in certain other

state boards, commissions, and officers, and to abolish certain

boards, commissions, and offices the powers and duties of which

are transferred by this act; to allow for the operation of cer-

tain facilities by private entities; to prescribe the powers and

duties of certain other state departments and agencies; to pro-

vide for the creation of a local lockup advisory board; to pre-

scribe penalties for the violation of the provisions of this act;

to make certain appropriations; to repeal certain parts of this

act on specific dates; and to repeal all acts and parts of acts

inconsistent with the provisions of this act,"

(MCL 791.202 to 791.283) by adding section 69b.

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:

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1 SEC. 69B. (1) THE DEPARTMENT SHALL ESTABLISH REASONABLE

2 POLICIES REGARDING NEWS MEDIA VISITS TO DEPARTMENT FACILITIES.

3 (2) A PRISONER WHO IS NOT IN ADMINISTRATIVE SEGREGATION

4 SHALL BE ALLOWED UNCENSORED CORRESPONDENCE WITH, AND TELEPHONE

5 ACCESS TO, NEWS MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES, SUBJECT TO REASONABLE REG-

6 ULATION AS TO TIME AND FREQUENCY. A PRISONER IN ADMINISTRATIVE

7 SEGREGATION STATUS SHALL BE ALLOWED TO SEND SEALED CORRESPONDENCE

8 TO NEWS MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES.

9 (3) A PRISONER WHO IS NOT IN ADMINISTRATIVE SEGREGATION MAY

10 SUBMIT UNCENSORED MANUSCRIPTS TO PUBLISHERS AND MAY SERVE AS A

11 LITERARY REVIEWER FOR NEWSPAPERS OR OTHER PUBLICATIONS.

12 (4) PRISONERS PERMITTED OUTSIDE AN INSTITUTION FOR REHABILI-

13 TATIVE OR PUBLIC SERVICE PURPOSES MAY PARTICIPATE IN NEWS INTER-

14 VIEWS WHEN APPROACHED BY NEWS MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES.

15 (5) A PRISONER SHALL NOT BE INTERVIEWED, FILMED, OR PHOTO-

16 GRAPHED BY THE NEWS MEDIA IN A DEPARTMENT INSTITUTION OR CORREC-

17 TIONAL FACILITY WITHOUT THE PRISONER'S PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT.

18 THE CONSENT OF BOTH THE DEPARTMENT AND THE PRISONER SHALL BE

19 REQUIRED BEFORE GRANTING A PERSONAL INTERVIEW. THE DEPARTMENT

20 SHALL GRANT REQUESTS IN A TIMELY MANNER FOR PERSONAL INTERVIEWS

21 OF A PRISONER IF THE NUMBER AND DURATION OF THE INTERVIEWS ARE

22 REASONABLE. THE DEPARTMENT SHALL TAKE APPROPRIATE STEPS IN EVAL-

23 UATING INTERVIEW REQUESTS TO ENSURE THAT THE PRISONER IS NOT

24 COERCED INTO CONSENTING TO AN INTERVIEW.

25 (6) THE WARDEN OF A CORRECTIONAL FACILITY MAY TEMPORARILY

26 SUSPEND ALL ACCESS BY PRISONERS TO THE NEWS MEDIA DURING

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1 EMERGENCIES OR DISORDERS IN THAT CORRECTIONAL FACILITY. THE

2 SUSPENSION SHALL END WHEN THE EMERGENCY OR DISORDER IS CONCLUDED.

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