University of Virginia Library

Getting Truth

The State Department of Welfare and
Institutions and the Division of Corrections
yesterday eased the rigid restrictions on media
access to penal facilities in Virginia. It was a
welcome step–not just for the media, which
needs such access to get the truth to the
public, but for the inmates, who risk being
sentenced to oblivion when they are locked
away in state prisons.

The correctional system in Virginia has
come under fire recently and there have been
several major confrontations between
prisoners and officials in the past year. The
rulings of Judge Merhige have helped to
crystallize for the public some of the
goings-on which would possibly have
otherwise gone unnoticed because of the lack
of media coverage under the stringent
restrictions of the past. But, in line with the
goals of rehabilitation and humanitarian
concerns, there is no excuse for barring the
press from interviewing or corresponding with
prisoners.

Corrections division director W.K.
Cunningham said last July that if he could be
guaranteed that reporters would write the
truth, and nothing but the truth, he would
rescind the ban on interviews. The implication
that reporters generally do not tell the truth
seems to be a view held by many prison
officials, especially those most criticized for
prison conditions. Instead of allowing
reporters to talk to inmates and visit the
institutions, too often the public officials say
simply "You will just have to take my word
on this." If they want the whole truth, their
word can not be the only criteria upon which
the reportage is based. That we have been
made personally aware of in our own
endeavors to get "the truth" on prison
conditions in Charlottesville.

The new rules which allow interviews with
prisoners and allow prisoners to correspond
with members of the press can only help
restore their freedom of speech, even if they
are justifiably denied other freedoms due to
their crimes. Not only that, but free flow of
information is the only way the truth will be
known, and the public–which pays for the
prisons–has a right to know the truth.

It is a sorry situation indeed when prison
officials berate the press for not printing the
truth when the officials themselves stand in
the way of the journalist's search for
information. And it was about time that sorry
situation was resolved in favor of the public's
right to know.