Rice v. State

Beier, J.:

Petitioners, inmates at the Lansing Correctional Facility (LCF), challenge respondents’ prohibition of their receipt of gift subscriptions to newspapers and magazines as a violation of their First Amendment rights. The district court upheld the respondents’ practice, finding it reasonably related to a valid penological interest of the Kansas Department of Corrections (DOC).

The parties stipulate that petitioners’ family members and friends have paid for magazine or newspaper subscriptions in petitioners’ names. Petitioners have not paid any portion of the costs of the subscriptions…