By, Vanessa Swales

Milwaukee County and a national nonprofit have settled a lawsuit challenging the Milwaukee County Jail's censorship of books, magazines and mail to inmates.

After mediation on Nov. 13, Milwaukee County agreed to pay $180,000 to the Human Rights Defense Center, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of people held in detention facilities across the country. The group filed the lawsuit against Milwaukee County and Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball in 2024.

"The jail's censorship has harmed many publishers and businesses who wish to provide publications to individuals confined within the jail," noted the nonprofit's Litigation Director Jonathan Picard, who explained the books and magazines that they send provide people with educational opportunities, information about their rights as well as resources for self-improvement while in the county's custody.

"Banning those publications from reaching those who are in jail is an affront to the First Amendment, as well as counterproductive to the goals of security and rehabilitation," Picard said. "The resolution in this case will have an enormously positive effect on the lives of many people."

The lawsuit alleged the jail's policy restricted publications to those purchased from a single source - Penguin Random House - in violation of inmates' rights under the First Amendment, and that the jail had failed to notify inmates when their mail was censored, violating the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.

Between mid-May 2022 and early April 2024, the jail had rejected "scores" of publications sent by the Human Rights Defense Center to inmates. After the lawsuit was filed, the jail changed its mail policy, and softcover books as well as periodicals published by the nonprofit were accepted into the jail.

In January, U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Joseph entered a preliminary injunction against Milwaukee County in a lawsuit challenging the County Jail's censorship of books, magazines and mail to inmates.

Joseph had found the jail's revised policy "restricting materials from all commercial sources is overbroad" and that "the public's interest in the safety of jails does not outweigh its interest in protecting inmates' First Amendment rights."

In late June, the county agreed to deliver books, periodicals or other publications sent to inmates by any publisher unless the content of those publications posed "a threat to the safety and security of the facility," and to deliver mail and informational brochures sent by the nonprofit to inmates as well as notify and train correctional staff about the changes.