A federal judge tosses a lawsuit over the ban on recorded inmate interviews in South Carolina

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit trying to overturn the South Carolina prison system’s banning on-camera, in-person interviews with inmates or recording their phone calls for broadcast.

The American Civil Liberties Union wanted to air a podcast with a death row inmate and also represents a transgender woman who killed her mother when she was 13, was diagnosed behind bars with gender dysphoria and is suing the state prison system over denial of care.

But in a ruling last week, federal Judge Jacquelyn Austin said the government can restrict free speech rights in areas it controls that aren’t public and the media doesn’t have special rights to access prisoners.

The prison system does allow prisoners and reporters to exchange letters.

The South Carolina Department of Corrections “stands by its longstanding policy, which allows inmates to answer interview questions in writing. We’re grateful the courts recognized and upheld it,” agency spokeswoman Chrysti Shain said in a statement.

The ACLU plans to appeal the judge’s decision to dismiss its lawsuit. The organization said hearing from inmates is especially important as the state plans its first execution in more than 13 years later this month with up to five more to come into spring 2025.

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“We continue to believe that South Carolinians deserve to hear what is happening in our prisons, and to hear it from the people experiencing it,” said Allen Chaney, Legal Director of the ACLU of South Carolina.

The policy has been in place for nearly 25 years. Prison officials said it protects victims of crime so the perpetrators don’t get fame and notoriety and keeps prisons safer because inmates can’t send coded messages through interviews.

The ACLU mentioned two inmates in its lawsuit. Sofia Cano, a transgender woman, wants to discuss her lawsuit over denial of care, prison conditions and the treatment of LGBTQ+ individuals behind bars.

The other is death row inmate Marion Bowman, convicted of killing a woman in 2001 and burning her body in a car trunk. Bowman’s lawyers argued at trial someone else pulled the trigger.

Bowman wants to tell his story as he prepares to ask the governor for clemency to change his death sentence to life in prison. The state Supreme Court has scheduled Bowman to be the third inmate to die as executions restart, meaning he could be put to death around the end of November or early December.

The Corrections Department does occasionally allow cameras into prisons for stories about specific programs, like inmates recording books for their children or learning job skills. But media outlets must agree to only use first names and not show faces, tattoos or other things that could identify an inmate.

While they can’t go on camera, prison officials said South Carolina inmates can write to anyone, including reporters, and inmates who can’t afford stamps or stationery can get them.

Inmates can also approve reporters to be on their telephone lists as long as their own words aren’t recorded and rebroadcast. The Associated Press interviewed one of two inmates who killed four fellow prisoners in 2017 in this way.

Also mentioned in the ACLU lawsuit was Alex Murdaugh, the former lawyer serving two life sentences for killing his wife and son. Murdaugh got in trouble because his recorded phone call with his lawyer was played as part of a documentary.

Prison officials said while Murdaugh lost privileges and his lawyer was warned that he might lose unmonitored access to phone calls with prisoner clients if he did it again, the media outlet suffered no consequences.