Inmate’s critical letter before court

Can a Virginia inmate call prison staff names in writing and get away with it?

A federal appeals court will hear arguments next week in a case triggered by a Jan. 10, 2004, letter from a prisoner who complained of "cold, callus, cruel, evil, uncaring, unmercyful, inhumane officials you have left in charge as wardens."

Johnny Huff, 57, then an inmate at the Haynesville Correctional Center, wrote to Gene Johnson, director of the Virginia Department of Corrections, alleging that old and infirm inmates were made to stand outside in inclement weather to obtain medications.

"Cattle farmers don't make their cattle stand out in such weather. They got barns. You wouldn't turn your poor dog out in this kind of weather," Huff wrote.

Huff, serving a 23½-year sentence at Deerfield Correctional Center for molesting a girl in Chesterfield County, was disciplined by the prison for using "insolent and inappropriate language directed toward an employee." He was fined $12 and says he lost some "good time" sentence reduction.

Huff sued, alleging inmates' rights against cruel and unusual punishment were violated by being made to wait outside in line and that he had a right to write what he did.

The Department of Corrections later found that because Huff's letter did not name the warden, it did not violate the department's policy. Huff's fine was returned and his disciplinary conviction expunged.

U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne dismissed Huff's cruel-and-unusual claim and ruled that Huff did not have a First Amendment right to make the comments in question.

Huff, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, appealed to the Richmond-based U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. Arguments will be heard by a panel of the court Tuesday.

The ACLU argues that Huff's letter "did not contain libelous accusations or vulgar, insulting words. Rather, this language was used in the context of a complaint about a policy that Mr. Huff found grievously injurious to himself and other inmates."

"It is precisely the kind of speech that should be protected, even in the prison environment," wrote Rebecca K. Glenberg, an ACLU lawyer.

Glenberg conceded that prisons have a right to bar abusive language directed at an official in confrontations -- so as to maintain order -- but that such a bar should not extend to a written complaint that was not shared with other inmates undermining order.

The Virginia Attorney General's office countered that Payne's ruling was correct, and that even if Huff's free-speech rights were violated, "Huff suffered no injury." His disciplinary conviction was expunged and his fine repaid.

"Constitutional rights must be scrupulously observed by prison officials," said the attorney general's office. However, "some constitutional rights may be curtailed in order to advance the 'legitimate penological objectives of the prison environment.'"

The state argues that, "while Huff's name-calling was not vulgar," it was "inappropriate, disrespectful, unnecessary, and threatening to the orderly operation of the prison."

According to the attorney general's office, though Huff was sentenced to 23½ years, he is now awaiting a decision on whether he will be committed indefinitely for treatment as a "sexually violent predator."

Reached by telephone Wednesday, Huff said he was transferred from Haynesville and does not know if inmates must still wait outside for daily pills there. Inmates at Deerfield, where he is held now, wait in line indoors, he said.

Larry Traylor, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections, said: "We don't discuss inmate allegations, particularly if there is pending litigation."

Contact Frank Green at (804) 649-6340 or .