Attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana said a jail in Howard County is illegally restricting access to books from a prison ministry.
ACLU attorneys filed a lawsuit on behalf of Unshackled Hearts, Inc., on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis.
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They said Unshackled Hearts has been unable to carry out its prison ministry due to overly restrictive policies at the Howard County Jail.
“The policy in place at Howard County Jail is nothing short of censorship, and there is no justification for shutting people off from the outside world in such a draconian way,” Gavin M. Rose, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Indiana, said Friday.
According to the lawsuit, Howard County Jail staff have implemented policies in recent years that have “severely restricted” the ministry’s ability to send books to incarcerated people.
The suit said that starting this year, the jail temporarily banned receipt of all books. It then relaxed the policy to include a limited number of publishers.
The lawsuit claims the policy violates the First Amendment, which guarantees religious freedom, and Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
“Severely restricting access to quality books is counterproductive to nearly every objective correctional institutions should endeavor to achieve,” Karen Ely, director of Unshackled Hearts, said in a statement Friday.
Ely said that part of the group’s mission is to supply individualized reading materials to promote emotional, spiritual and mental growth.
The Howard County Sheriff’s Department didn’t immediately respond to inquiries Friday.
