Survey: More states restrict media access to inmates

By The Associated Press

12.11.00

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A growing number of states are restricting the media's access to prison inmates, according to a recent nationwide survey.

Nine states now bar face-to-face interviews with inmates, up from six in 1998, the Society of Professional Journalists has found.

Wyoming's law is so strict officials there can't release any inmate information — including photos of outlaw Butch Cassidy from the time he spent in state prison. He is thought to have died in a shootout in Bolivia in 1908.

Alabama, Arizona, California, Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Wyoming will not arrange interviews with specific inmates, the society found.

"We believe in the right to free speech, but that doesn't necessarily require a face-to-face interview. We have a fairly liberal telephone policy. If somebody from the media wants to talk to an inmate, we can arrange that pretty quickly," said Idaho Department of Correction spokesman Mark Carnopis.

"There are some high-profile inmates that are seeking publicity at every turn. And it's not necessarily in their best interest or in the interest of the department to allow face-to-face interviews."

Idaho and some other states will reconsider on a case-by-case basis, said SPJ spokeswoman Sarah Shrode. And in most cases reporters can eventually get on cooperating inmates' visitation lists — but that often takes months.

Two years ago, SPJ found face-to-face interviews banned by Arizona, California, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas and Mississippi.

Policies vary widely.

Arizona allows only phone interviews. On the other hand, Texas bans phone interviews — but allows face-to-face contact.

North Carolina has among the fewest restrictions on telephone and in-person interviews, including the use of television or still cameras.

California helped trigger the trend toward secrecy in 1994, when former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson's administration banned face-to-face interviews for fear of creating inmate celebrities.

Democratic Gov. Gray Davis recently vetoed a bill that would have eased those restrictions, in part because he said such interviews could bring renewed sorrow to victims' families.

Critics like Peter Sussman, a former San Francisco Chronicle editor, say that inmate interviews are particularly important in the current debate over whether innocent people are being sent to death row. Sussman wrote a 1993 book on the subject, Committing Journalism.

Restrictions on media access also makes it more difficult for reporters to uncover abuses or wasteful spending, says SPJ President Kyle Niederpruem, an assistant city editor at the Indianapolis Star. However, she says there has been little public outcry against such policies.

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