In Re Aaron Collins

Inmate Classified is in the business of publishing personal Web pages on the Internet for prison inmates who subscribe to its service. Each inmate’s page includes an individual electronic (e-mail) address, and Inmate Classified periodically downloads and prints any e-mail messages received by the inmate subscriber and sends them to the inmate by regular United States mail. Aaron Collins, an inmate at Pelican Bay State Prison (Pelican Bay), subscribed to Inmate Classified’s service. In mid-1998, however, the warden at Pelican Bay directed that materials downloaded from the Internet would not be accepted by the prison mailroom.

Collins filed a petition for habeas corpus challenging the prohibition on First Amendment grounds, and the trial court issued an order to show cause. After an evidentiary hearing, the trial court granted the petition and ordered that inmates could receive e-mail or other Internet related material sent by United States mail, subject to existing regulations governing nonconfidential inmate mail. The warden has appealed. We conclude that the ban is valid because it is “reasonably related to legitimate penological interests.” (Turner v. Safley (1987)…