On Memorial Day, 2007, inmates at the federal prison camp in Otisville, N.Y., found that prison authorities had taken hundreds of books off the chapel library shelves. According to an Associated Press report, the removal of the books was "part of a long-delayed, post-Sept. 11 federal directive intended to prevent radical religious texts, specifically Islamic ones, from falling into the hands of violent inmates." Three inmates at Otisville filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York on May 29, 2007, saying their Constitutional rights were violated; they alleged that the books in question were both Christian and Muslim.

According to the AP report of the resulting temporary restraining order (TRO) hearing, held May 31, 2007 before U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain, the government explained that under the new rules, prison libraries were limiting the number of books for each religion to between 100 and 150; officials would eventually expand the number.

In an oral ruling, the court denied the TRO, and directed the plaintiffs to pursue administrative remedies; Judge Swain set deadlines for preliminary injunction papers over the summer. The government informed the court that it would not destroy the books in question until at least October 2007.

The case was referred to Magistrate Judge Frank Maas on June 21, 2007. Plaintiffs' wrote to the Magistrate on June 27 stating they believed they would exhaust the grievance process before being released. The Magistrate ordered the case closed on June 30. The Court (Judge Laura Talor Swain) approved Plaintiffs' voluntary dismissal of their claims without prejudice on August 28. The case is now closed.

Margo Schlanger - 06/11/2007
Kenneth Gray - 07/11/2013


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