Mail Censorship, Book Bans, and Misconduct – A Letter From Federal Prison

FCI McKean, PA — Anson Chi says he’s a political prisoner dealing with mail censorship, book bans, and misconduct by federal corrections officers. In a letter to Unicorn Riot, Chi provided prison bulletins, prison communications, and letters from his mother as proof of “how the United States government censors anarchists in the federal prison system.”

Chi is incarcerated at the medium security Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) McKean in Pennsylvania with a release date of December 20, 2029.

“FCI McKean has banned all books, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, zines, pamphlets, etc. for the second time already!” While it sounds drastic, Chi isn’t exaggerating. Last August, the prison announced they would be returning all books, newspapers, and magazines to the sender.

During the first ban, Chi was able to receive the Midwest Books to Prisoners News Roundup “since they just photocopied it like a regular letter.” But Chi said because the newsletter “contains anti-prison, pro-anarchy, pro-activist content,” McKean then “used the second book ban as an excuse to completely and totally ban the News Roundup.”

The newsletter is essential in providing inmates with contact information to support groups and organizations that could provide legal resources.

Chi states he’s “been tortured 3 separate times by government officers” — one of the sessions, he says, left him with permanent injuries. He has two separate lawsuits currently filed in federal courts and has been pushing for awareness of his “three tortures” from behind the walls.

After reaching out for support, Chi wrote in the letter to UR that last October, the warden “banned my email access forever, deleted all my contacts, deleted my Corrlinks email and even blocked your mailing address when I tried to add it.” Chi included a copy of his “diatribe/harangue to the prison warden,” see Exhibit B.

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In the grievance to Warden Newman, Chi blames the warden for deleting 99 of his contacts as well as “24 phone numbers,” and “18 email addresses including attorneys” along with “firms such as the National Lawyers Guild, Rights Behind Bars, Lewisburg Prison Project, Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project.”

Chi notes that he had not been sanctioned, nor “received any notice” of the “arbitrary deletion of my contacts and denial of my email access forever.”

“You just want to silence me for fighting your book ban, magazine ban, newspaper ban, months-long lockdowns, etc. You just want to censor me and try to stop me from posting my police-torture on social media.”Anson Chi, in a letter (Exhibit B) to Warden Newman of FCI McKean in November 2024

Chi provided further correspondence with prison officials of previous contact deletions as well as two letters from his mother and a letter that his mother wrote to the warden claiming she received unsealed and empty mail from her son.

“We can corroborate what Anson Chi has been going through in regards to political censorship and retaliation,” said Jer from Midwest Books to Prisoners, a volunteer-run nonprofit support org providing printed material, including legal resources, to incarcerated people.

Midwest Books to Prisoners prints collaborative zines with incarcerated authors and artists, sends them to inmates and tracks prison censorship, among other services. Their latest Midwest Prison Censorship Update provides an expose on the Illinois Department of Corrections “Mail Scanning Scam.”

“We’re seeing a generalized rise in censorship/repression across the system,” said Jer. “FCI McKean has passed its own draconian restrictions and has also particularly targeted Anson Chi, with whom we have been corresponding with for a few years.”

Jer specified that “the defining feature of these new waves of prison censorship is banning books and digitizing the mail because of the possibility that it could be soaked in drugs. Besides the blanket policies, we’ve also seen an increase in trivial ‘unusual stains’ rejections for books that the mailroom guards simply dislike — and there being no followup or investigation to determine whether the mail actually contains contraband or not.”

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While attempting to send books and other literature, Midwest Books to Prisoners received “a few rejections of books sent to Anson and others for ‘safety security of the institution’ for any types of political content.”

Jer elaborated that McKean “banned all books entirely; then they went to just one book a day, then a few days later went back to no books, all of which violates BOP’s national policy and federal law.”

FCI McKean’s policy change was “due to the rise in attempted introduction of contraband into the institution” through the mail, said the warden. A couple weeks before the change, a correctional worker at USP Atwater died after reportedly being exposed to mail laced with narcotics. In November, the Bureau of Prisons then implemented new mail policies across federal prisons.

When asked if there are other examples of politically active prisoners being targeted and censored, Jer said, there’s “so many.”

Jer noted “Malik Muhammad, an uprising defendant who continues to publish statements from behind bars, has been routinely subjected to torture, harassment and solitary confinement.” “Jason Walker and Kwaneta Harris“ are two others “who have been retaliated against for being vocal and active.”

Midwest Books has tried to send books to Muhammed, which were “rejected for political content.” Another person who’s had their books and mail rejected is Larry Warren at Pendleton Correctional Facility, said Jer.

Warren “routinely had books/mail rejected, and upon filing grievances, was sent to the hole, and after filing a federal lawsuit, was subsequently falsely accused of receiving drug soaked books in the mail, was sent to the hole [again] — but this has since been dropped: Larry’s lawsuit is still active though,” according to Jer.

Another prisoner in North Carolina that Midwest Books corresponds with was also falsely accused of receiving books soaked in drugs, said Jer. “He was in the hole and transferred, but they also eventually dropped the charges.”

“Unfortunately, this type of retaliation and false accusations without any proof positive drug test confirmations (they always use BS presumptive testing notoriously inaccurate) is just so commonplace, often subject to the personal whims of the mailroom guards.” – Jer, Midwest Books to Prisoners

In his letter to UR, Chi asks to “please kindly spread the word about the United States Bureau of Prisons’ foregoing acts of censorship and misconduct.”

Chi was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison in 2015 after pleading guilty to possession of an unregistered firearm or explosive device and malicious use of explosive material. Chi includes information on his story and provides documents and more in a Bio Link website.

Read Anson Chi’s five-page letter to Unicorn Riot which includes six exhibits, below.

AnsonChi-LetterToUR-w-Exhibits Download

Unicorn Riot has yet to receive a response from FCI McKean to questions about the reports of censorship.

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