Jail no longer providing newspapers to inmates

The Spokane County Jail has ended its decades-long practice of paying for dozens of copies of Spokane’s daily newspaper for inmates after the president of the jailers union recently complained the newspaper poses a “security risk.”

Corrections Deputy Andy Jennings, president of the correctional officers union, Local 492, requested the policy change last month in a memo to jail officials.

Reached for comment last week, Jennings said the 156 corrections deputies he represents have become concerned that the newspaper contains too much personal information – including names and addresses of corrections officers and local patrol officers and pending legal charges against the incarcerated.

“This was brought to my attention by quite a few staff,” Jennings said.

Jennings gave no specific examples. But The Spokesman-Review rarely publishes the home addresses or other personal details about law enforcement officers. The newspaper has written about several serious incidents in the jail this year, including the Jan. 29 death of inmate Benites Sichiro after a fight with guards. The county medical examiner has ruled Sichiro’s death a homicide.

The jail’s Inmate Welfare Fund Board, summarizing the union’s concerns, said The Spokesman-Review should be canceled “due to the security risk it is posing for law enforcement staff and other inmates.”

That’s not the only factor in canceling the newspaper, said Undersheriff Jeff Tower, appointed in May by Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, who said last week the decision “wasn’t my call.”

Because the jail is seriously overcrowded, Tower said, inmates are locked down much of the time and are spending far less on phone calls and commissary purchases – sources of revenue for the Inmate Welfare Fund, which is supposed to be used strictly for benefits to inmates.

“They are spending a lot more time in their cells. It’s a problem,” Tower said.

Spokane County Public Defender John Rodgers, head of the agency which represents many indigent jail inmates, decried the newspaper cancellations.

“We stick guys in jail and cut off their outside contact. Why can’t we let them know what’s going on? It’s an insidious process of creating a permanent underclass. Jail is a loss of freedom – perhaps deserved – but it shouldn’t be more than that,” Rodgers said.

Jail officials initially considered subscribing instead to a national newspaper such as USA Today, but ended up unanimously rejecting any newspaper – moving the $5,000 previously spent for newspaper subscriptions to the $30,000 inmate clothing allowance.

The newspaper suspension was approved unanimously at the Aug. 15 meeting of the Inmate Welfare Fund board. Jail officials voting for the change included Lt. Mike Sparber; Sgt. Bev Mickelson and Sgt. Don Hooper. Public Defender Mark Lorenz missed the meeting, but said last week he would have voted against dropping the newspaper.

The officials agreed there is no rule that the inmate fund has to purchase newspapers. But it has been standard practice for decades to provide about three dozen copies for use in the jail’s living areas. Teachers in the jail’s GED program have complained about the dropped newspaper, said Deputy Douglas Gossard of the jail’s library services division.Jail officials decided if an inmate wants to buy the local paper, “he/she could do so out of their own pocket,” the welfare fund board minutes say.

“They are still allowed to purchase the newspaper – we can’t stop their freedom of speech,” Jennings added.

But one inmate whose family agreed to buy the newspaper for him after the suspension was upset last week that he wasn’t getting it.

Justin M. Anest wrote to the newspaper last on Sept. 21, saying jail officials had deliberately withheld his paper and taunted him about it even though his father, a Spokane businessman, paid for a three-month subscription. The 34-year old Spokane resident is in jail awaiting sentencing in December on a federal drug charge.

His father, Rob Anest, confirmed he had purchased the newspaper for his son to help him pass the time and keep up on local news. After a meeting with jail officials last Tuesday, Anest said his son is now getting his paper.

“There is no TV in the jail. There is absolutely nothing for these guys to do. They are locked up most of the day. If you have nothing to read and nothing to do, it’s a problem. It’s way too punitive,” Anest said.

Another inmate, Roger Hotrum, said in a letter that the no-newspaper policy was announced to the inmates on Sept. 1.

Jail officials gave no reason for the policy change but denied the canceled subscriptions had anything to do with a recent court ruling that invalidated the jail’s authority to charge an $89 “booking fee,” Hotrum wrote.

Hotrum, a convicted burglar, said he was preparing a formal grievance and will ask the jail command to reinstate the newspaper.

Spokane’s jail has become more and more overcrowded and restrictive, with many inmates confined to their cells up to 22 hours a day, Hotrum noted.

“The way jail administrators decide to treat their prisoners reflects heavily on the character of the administration. Spokane’s jail administration has become oppressive over the years,” Hotrum said.