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(123rd General Assembly)(Amended Substitute House Bill Number 62)
AN ACT
To enact sections 5120.425, 5120.426, 5120.427, and 5120.428 of the Revised
Code to regulate
the receipt and retention of specified inflammatory
materials
and other types of materials by
prisoners in state correctional institutions.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio:
SECTION 1 . That sections 5120.425, 5120.426, 5120.427, and 5120.428
of the Revised Code be enacted to read as
follows:
Sec. 5120.425. As used in sections 5120.425 to 5120.428 of the
Revised Code: (A) "Head of a state correctional institution,"
"prisoner," and "state correctional institution" have the same
meanings as in section 2967.01 of the
Revised
Code. (B) "Material" means a prerecorded magnetic audio or video
tape, book, drawing, magazine, newspaper, pamphlet, poster,
print, photograph, or other similar printed, written, recorded,
or otherwise produced item. (C) "Prohibited inflammatory material" means a material
that, in the determination of the
warden or the warden's designee,
is detrimental to, or poses a threat to, the rehabilitation of the inmates or
the security, good
order, or discipline within or on the grounds of the
institution for any reason, including, but not limited to, that it is material
with a sexually explicit nature. (D) "Publication review committee" means the
committee created by the director of rehabilitation and
correction pursuant to division
(C) of section 5120.426 of the Revised Code. (E) "warden" means the head of a state CORRECTIONAL
INSTITUTION. (F) "warden's designee" means a person or a panel of persons
designated by a warden to perform a RESPONSIBILITY that SECTIONS 5120.425
to 5120.428 of the Revised Code generally otherwise impose
upon the warden. Sec. 5120.426. (A) The director of rehabilitation and correction
shall adopt
rules, and each warden
shall adopt regulations that govern the
form, medium, and quantity of materials that each prisoner
confined in the warden's institution is permitted to receive and retain.
Those rules and regulations shall be consistent with sections 5120.425 to
5120.428 of
the Revised Code. The regulations adopted by the
warden shall be consistent with the
rules that the director of rehabilitation and correction adopts
pursuant to this division. (B) The director of rehabilitation and correction shall adopt a
rule establishing a standard for determining whether material is
a prohibited inflammatory material.
In establishing the standard for determining whether material
is a prohibited inflammatory material, the director shall consider all
relevant
information, including, but not limited to, the standard
established for material that is harmful to juveniles in section 2907.01
of the Revised Code; in establishing the standard under this division, the director shall not
be governed or limited by the standard established by section 2907.01 of the Revised Code. (C) The director of rehabilitation and correction shall appoint a
publication review committee of one or more persons. The member or members of
the committee shall review withholding determinations pursuant to section
5120.428 of the Revised Code. Sec. 5120.427. (A) Each prisoner confined in a state
correctional institution may
receive a reasonable number of materials directly from the
publishers or other distributors of those materials. With the
prior approval of the warden of the state correctional institution
in which a prisoner is confined, each
prisoner also may receive a reasonable number of materials from
a source other than the publisher or other distributor of those
materials. A prisoner's receipt and retention of materials is
subject to security inspections conducted by the institution in which the
prisoner is confined and to the rules and
regulations adopted pursuant to
section 5120.426 of the Revised Code. Subject
to a contrary decision with respect to a material's nature by
the publication review committee following a review pursuant to
section 5120.428 of the Revised Code, a prisoner
is not entitled to receive or retain any material that
a warden or the warden's designee determines during
the course of a security inspection to be a
prohibited inflammatory material. (B)(1) For each state
correctional institution, the warden or the warden's designee shall inspect
each
incoming
material to determine whether the material is a
prohibited inflammatory material
or another type of material. The
warden or the warden's designee shall not
determine a material to be a prohibited
inflammatory material solely on the basis of its appeal to a
particular ethnic, racial, or religious audience. (2) If the warden or the warden's
designee
determines that an
incoming material is not a prohibited inflammatory material,
the warden or the warden's designee shall
cause the material to
be promptly forwarded to the prisoner who is its intended
recipient. If the warden or the warden's designee determines
that an incoming material is a prohibited inflammatory material,
the warden or the warden's designee shall cause the material to
be withheld from the prisoner who is
its intended recipient and promptly shall provide that prisoner
with a written withholding notice containing all of the following: (a) A general description of the
withheld material; (b) The reason why the material has not been
forwarded to the prisoner; (c) A statement of the prisoner's
right under division (A) of
section 5120.428 of the Revised Code to have the publication
review committee review the withholding decision of the
warden or the warden's designee. (3) Within five working days after a prisoner's receipt
of the withholding notice described in division
(B)(2) of this section, the
prisoner may submit to the warden
a written request for a review of the
withholding decision. If the prisoner fails to submit a timely
written request for a review of that nature, the failure shall
constitute the prisoner's acceptance of the
withholding decision, and the warden
or the warden's designee shall cause the material to
be disposed of in the manner that the warden or the warden's
designee considered to be most appropriate under the
circumstances. Sec. 5120.428. (A) If a prisoner
confined in a state correctional institution
submits a timely written review request under division
(B)(3) of section 5120.427 of the Revised Code, the
warden of the state correctional institution in which the prisoner
is confined or the
warden's designee
promptly shall forward the withheld material to the publication review
committee. As soon as is practicable after receipt of the
withheld material,
the
publication review committee
shall review the material to determine whether it
is a prohibited inflammatory material
or another type of material. (B) If the publication review committee determines
that the withheld material is not a
prohibited inflammatory material,
the committee
shall cause the
withheld material to be promptly forwarded to the
prisoner who requested the review. (C) If the publication review committee determines
that the withheld material is a
prohibited inflammatory material,
the committee shall forward the material to
the warden or
the warden's designee for disposal in the manner
considered to be most appropriate
under the circumstances.
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