What this campaign is about

The immediate issue is not one lost newspaper. It is a reported pattern of non-delivery affecting approximately 25 Perry subscribers to the San Francisco Bay View. Mary Ratcliff, the paper’s publisher, reports that the paper was mailed to those subscribers. Rashid reports that the December 2025, January/February 2026, and March 2026 issues never reached them. He also reports that these publications were not routed through the normal review-and-notice process that SCDC policy requires for allegedly questionable publications.

Under SCDC Policy PS-10.08, questionable publications are supposed to go through the Correspondence Review Committee process. If a publication is rejected, the prisoner is supposed to receive notice. If a publication is disapproved, the publisher is supposed to receive notice and an opportunity to appeal. According to Rashid and Mary Ratcliff, that process does not appear to have happened here.

Rashid further reports that contraband investigators have been present in the mailroom on a daily basis under the stated rationale of drug screening, and that this apparatus has in practice been used to interfere with political publications rather than simply screen mail for contraband. In his view, the Bay View is being targeted because it is a Black national newspaper with explicit anti-racist political content, not because of any legitimate security concern.

In the absence of delivery, inmate rejection notice, CRC notice, or publisher notice, the available facts support a strong inference that these newspapers were withheld, diverted, or destroyed outside the review-and-notice process required by PS-10.08.

This matters not only because newspapers are being withheld, but because the San Francisco Bay View functions as a collective political communications channel for incarcerated readers. Mary Ratcliff has emphasized that access to this kind of publication helps prisoners understand they are not isolated, connect their experiences to broader struggles, and challenge abuse more effectively. The suppression of the paper therefore affects not just individual subscribers, but a whole layer of communication, political education, and collective awareness inside Perry.

This complaint is also tied to a broader South Carolina retaliation pattern Rashid has publicly described in writings on solitary confinement, communication suppression, medical neglect, dental abuse, chemical exposure, and retaliation for exposing prison abuse.

What officials must do

• Explain what happened to the missing December 2025, January/February 2026, and March 2026 issues of the San Francisco Bay View.
• Confirm whether those issues were referred to the Correspondence Review Committee.
• Explain why neither prisoners nor the publisher received the required notice.
• Stop retaliation against Kevin “Rashid” Johnson and other subscribers who challenge censorship.
• Ensure future issues of the San Francisco Bay View are delivered unless there is a lawful, documented, reviewable basis to withhold a specific issue.

Why this is bigger than one publication

According to Rashid and Mary Ratcliff, the issue is not simply that a few papers went missing. It is that a Black newspaper with explicit anti-racist political content reportedly failed to reach approximately 25 subscribers, without the review, notice, or appeal process that SCDC policy requires.

The San Francisco Bay View also functions as more than reading material. It is part of an inside-outside communications network that helps prisoners understand their conditions, connect with broader struggles, and challenge abuse. In that sense, the suppression of the paper is not just censorship of a publication. It is an attack on political communication and collective awareness.

The related denial of Socialist Viewpoint, combined with the retaliatory warning Rashid reports after he challenged that denial, strengthens the concern that this is not a neutral mail problem but a broader pattern of racialized and political censorship reinforced by retaliation.

Why this censorship complaint cannot be separated from the broader South Carolina pattern

Rashid has publicly described a wider pattern of retaliation in South Carolina that helps explain why the Bay View censorship matters. In a March 2026 statement, he reports that after his transfer to South Carolina he was placed in solitary confinement, subjected to repeated communication restrictions, threatened after outside supporters and media contacted SCDC, deprived of legal and personal property, and exposed to Bengal 2X insecticide in a prison cell. He also reports punitive transfer after publishing about another prisoner’s denied medical care. These are not background details for their own sake. They matter because they show the context in which the current publication censorship is taking place: a pattern Rashid describes as retaliation for exposing abuse and maintaining communication with the outside world.

That broader pattern also helps explain why the current complaint is framed as more than a routine mail dispute. According to Rashid, the issue is not simply that newspapers went missing. It is that political publications were blocked in a setting where communication, reporting, and outside exposure have already been treated as threats. In that context, the disappearance of a Black political newspaper and the warning issued after he challenged related censorship point to communication suppression and retaliation operating together.

Rashid reports that when he challenged the denial of Socialist Viewpoint, he argued that the suppression was political and racially discriminatory. He says Associate Warden Joseph Werts then responded that his grievance language was “borderline disrespect” and that this conduct “will not be tolerated.”

How to take action

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Send the Action Network letter

Use the embedded Action Network tool below to send the current campaign letter directly to South Carolina officials. This is the fastest way to generate written pressure and create a public record of concern.

Public documentation

• SCDC Policy PS-10.08 – Inmate Correspondence Privileges
• Kevin “Rashid” Johnson statement on retaliation, isolation, and chemical exposure in South Carolina
• My Retaliation and Abuse Continues in South Carolina Prisons Under Interstate Compact
• The Barbarity of Solitary Confinement in South Carolina
• Solitary Confinement in South Carolina Leads to Suicide and Psychosis
• Medical Staff Use Denied Care to Abuse Prisoners: A Case in South Carolina
• After South Carolina Prison Officials Deny Me Dental Care…

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