A federal judge denied a newspaper editor’s release from a halfway house after the man sued the prison system for punishing him for rule violations for reporting a Covid-19 outbreak at the facility. Keith “Malik” Washington is serving a sentence for a parole violation after a 2010 conviction for bank robbery in Texas. Washington is editor-in-chief for the Sam Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper. The judge directed Washington to seek relief through an administrative appeals process. (Courthouse News Service, March 11, 2021, by Nicholas Iovino)
In his lawsuit, Washington claimed the half-way house rule requiring a “News Interview Authorization Form” before talking with the press amounted to a gag rule that prevents gathering and reporting news in a timely way. (El Tecolote, March 11, 2021, by Garrett Leahy)