Prisoners Union v. Department of Corrections

Appellant Prisoners Union is a nonprofit organization concerned with the welfare of prisoners and their families. By this action for declaratory and injunctive relief, it and certain of its members challenge the power of state prison officials to ban it from distributing informational literature to visitors of inmates in a public parking lot located on prison property but outside prison walls. We hold that such activity is protected by the federal and state Constitutions, and that it cannot be banned absent a showing that such activity would pose an overriding threat to prison security, or to another similar state interest. Since we find no such showing on this record, we conclude that appellants are entitled to the relief which they seek.

The prison at issue is the Correctional Training Facility known as Soledad, located two miles north of the town of Soledad in Monterey County. Two of the three facilities at Soledad, North and Central, share a common parking lot outside the entrance building to the prison. The lot is open to members of the general public wishing to visit a prisoner or to purchase cráfts in the prison hobby shop located in the entrance building. No…