DOC punishing woman for posting video of imprisoned brother on Facebook, suit says

Valerie Buford has been using social media to advocate for her brother’s release from prison.

Last September, she posted a video of her brother on a Facebook event page to invite people to attend his upcoming court hearing. The page’s title: “PACK THE COURT! MAKE IT TREMBLE! Justice for Leon Benson.” The video is a 30-second clip that her brother took and sent to Buford through JPay, a company that allows prisoners to receive money and send emails and videos to relatives.

Shortly after the video was posted, Buford learned that the Indiana Department of Correction blocked her JPay account and that she could no longer contact her brother.

Buford, of Pontiac, Mich., is now suing the DOC, alleging a violation of her First Amendment rights. At issue is not whether her brother is innocent, but whether the DOC violated a private citizen’s constitutional right to free speech.

“It’s the DOC saying that we have the right to punish you if we don’t like what you’re saying,” said Ken Falk, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, which represents Buford. “I think the interesting thing here is we’re not punishing just the prisoner. We’re punishing the person who, in exercising her own First Amendment rights, does something with the information that she acquires from the prisoner.”

DOC spokesman Ike Randolph said he could not comment because of pending litigation. Efforts to reach Buford for an interview Thursday were unsuccessful.

Benson, 39, has been imprisoned since 1999, serving a 60-year sentence for murder, DOC records show. He has claimed that he is innocent, and he has been challenging his conviction since he was sentenced. To support her brother’s efforts to be released, Buford started a Facebook page titled “Free Leon Benson.” Other supporters have created websites, YouTube videos and online petitions to free Benson, who is incarcerated at Pendleton Correctional Facility.

According to a federal complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, the video in question shows Benson thanking his supporters and urging them to come to his upcoming post-conviction relief hearing.

JPay allows prisoners to pay for 30-second video messages to send to families or relatives. As with any other form of correspondence, the video message, Falk assumed, was reviewed by DOC before it was sent out. He said there was nothing in the video that should have raised any concerns, and neither Benson nor Buford violated any DOC rules.

“There’s nothing wrong with encouraging people to support him or encouraging them to come to his court hearing,” Falk said. “There’s nothing in the rules, nor could there be or should there be anything in the rules about prohibiting using correspondence to advocate on the outside. That’s certainly within everyone’s rights.”

But, according to the complaint, an internal affairs supervisor at Pendleton told Buford that she was barred from using JPay as a punishment for posting the video on social media. Benson also was punished. He was placed in segregation, his JPay account was blocked for three months, and he lost some good-time credit, Falk said.

Buford was never told how long she was barred from JPay, the complaint says. It also is unclear why posting the video became a problem. Long before Buford was barred from JPay, several links to YouTube videos that feature Benson had been posted to the Free Leon Benson Facebook page. The videos appear to be audio recordings of Benson talking of injustice and being in prison.

“The First Amendment guarantees all of us the right to exercise our expressive rights without being punished by government, and she has exercised her rights to advocate for her brother,” Falk said, “and as a result, she is now being denied the JPay access to her brother.”

Falk said his client is concerned that she will be prevented from publicly advocating for her brother’s release.

ACLU of Indiana is asking for restoration of Buford’s JPay account. Falk said it also is asking the court for a preliminary injunction to prevent DOC from punishing Buford for future advocacy efforts on behalf of Benson.

Call Star reporter Kristine Guerra at (317) 444-6209. Follow her on Twitter: @kristine_guerra .