Inmate-Writer Sues U.S. to Stop Transfer

SAN FRANCISCO — An inmate who writes articles about prison life for the San Francisco Chronicle filed suit in U.S. District Court here Wednesday to prevent federal prison authorities from moving him to another facility.

Assistant U.S. Atty. George C. Stoll revealed in court Wednesday that federal prison officials planned to move Dannie M. Martin early this morning from the Metropolitan Correctional Facility in San Diego to an undisclosed location. A lawyer for Martin asked U.S. District Judge Charles Legge for a temporary order to block the transfer.

Martin was placed in solitary confinement at Lompoc Federal Penitentiary on June 22, three days after his column concerning rising tensions at the facility--titled “The Gulag Mentality; Some Wardens Know How to Make Hell Burn a Little Hotter”--ran in the Chronicle.

Lompoc Warden Richard H. Rison said the confinement was to protect Martin from other inmates who might have been upset by the article. Martin was released from solitary the following day, and was transfered to San Diego on June 30.

The suit, filed by Martin and joined by the Chronicle, charges the prison measures were retaliatory and violated constitutional free speech guarantees. It also challenges the Bureau of Prisons regulation that prohibits inmates from selling articles to newspapers.

‘Exercising Rights’

“One of the ways the system has to deal with troublesome prisoners is to transfer them around at an alarmingly rapid rate,” said Martin’s attorney, Jeffrey A. Leon. “He’s merely exercising his rights to free speech and they’ve retaliated against him for doing that.”

Stoll denied the allegations, telling Legge that Martin is “ . . . not being put on some merry-go-round. This is a permanent assignment.”

Arguments on Martin’s request are to resume this morning.

Leon argued that Martin’s transfer from Lompoc was unusually abrupt, forcing him to leave behind his personal belongings, including notes for future articles and a novel. But the government’s lawyer said Martin’s belongings will catch up with him.