The assistant warden said the woman's visitation was permanently suspended after she tried to email her husband pictures of herself and their three kids at a prison reform demonstration. Administration officials have since lifted any potential suspension.

Brittany Graham had never been to a protest in her life, but she felt she had to speak out.

Her husband, Lavontaye Graham, is a low-level offender currently incarcerated on drug trafficking charges at Lancaster Correctional Institution, about 30 miles west of Gainesville.

Inspired by groups like Families Against Mandatory Minimums, the ACLU, and Florida Cares, Brittany Graham decided to attend a demonstration with their three children. Afterwards, she attempted to send pictures of the four of them, a video and a short note to her husband using JPay, a for-profit emailing service offered in Florida prisons.

Before Graham got home, she received a call from her husband. The email had been flagged, and JPay notified her that she was restricted from sending further messages to her husband. On Thursday, Graham received word that her visitation was to be permanently suspended. She said her husband told her he was to be barred from working on a roadside crew outside the gates, which he had been doing before the protest.

Suddenly, Graham said, the "fire inside her" that drove her to speak out was extinguished. She felt scared. Her kids were devastated.

"I'm not a criminal," Graham said. "I'm not in prison. Why is my voice being muted? That's not fair. That's not right. Why are my children not able to speak?"

Graham said she did not receive a detailed explanation from prison officials, but her husband relayed that she was deemed a security threat due to the presence of a prison abolitionist group at the protest.

The note Graham sent, she said, was also construed as a threat, according to her husband. Graham said she wrote that she saw her husband on the highway with a work crew (she was mistaken) and that she felt like it took a piece of her soul when she saw it. Graham said that was interpreted as potentially indicating that she would try to free her husband or help him escape.

The Times-Union obtained a copy of an email sent to Graham by the assistant warden at Lancaster, Cindy Reed.

In the email, Reed thanked Graham for relaying her "concerns in regards to your recent permanent visitation suspension."

"However, I regretfully inform you that due to the nature of this incident in question, you will not be allowed to visit with your husband as you have requested," Reed wrote in the email.

The assistant warden continued: "Please continue to write or correspond with your husband through JPay as you have been doing because good communication helps build a positive relationship and assist the inmate throughout his incarceration. Also, the meeting that you have requested is not warranted at this time."

Graham said her JPay account, however, remained blocked Friday morning from sending her husband an email.

After the Times-Union sent copies of the email exchange to the Florida Department of Corrections and asked for comment, officials in Tallahassee said that Graham's visitation would not be suspended. It was never approved by the regional director, which is a necessary part of the process, said the department spokeswoman, Michelle Glady.

Glady said she couldn't speak to why Reed told Graham she was banned from visiting.

"That's why there is this level of review, to make sure that the permanent suspension like this was made appropriately, and those checks and balances are in place," Glady said.

Lavontaye's Grahams work status was not immediately clarified.

Prison officials have displayed a pattern of sensitivity to protest groups in recent years. In June, a woman was trespassed after she strayed from the visitation area and joined a protest at a prison site. Officials in Tallahassee had to correct that episode after the Times-Union reported on it.

Brittany Graham drove to the protest Jan 8. She was asked to show up at Lake Butler, but did not know what groups were there. She wanted to speak to the need for more parole. Her husband is serving six years and is in minimum custody.

"I sent the pictures so that he knows we're fighting for him," Graham said. "We're being his voice. He has people that care."

After learning from the Times-Union that her visitation would not in fact be suspended, Graham said: "Thank God for the voice of the press."

Ben Conarck: (904) 359-4103