Avid Bookshop has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Gwinnett County Jail alleging that its mail policy is unconstitutional after the jail refused to accept book shipments to an inmate.
According to Avid, several individuals asked the Athens bookstore to mail books to an inmate in Gwinnett County, but the jail rejected those shipments on the grounds that Avid is not an “authorized retailer.”
“The jail’s vague policies harm independent booksellers, especially small businesses like Avid Bookshop who are dedicated to bookselling as an expression of our values of progress and community,” Luis Correa, operations manager at Avid, said in a news release. “Incarcerated people have a right to books, and we as independent booksellers should be able share our love of reading with them through the books we recommend and sell ourselves. What these policies amount to is unmitigated government censorship.”
The Gwinnett County Jail has no policy for designating an “authorized retailer,” according to the news release, which quotes a representative of the American Booksellers Association as saying that it’s unfair for the jail to deny independent booksellers the right to send books to prisons while allowing deliveries from Amazon and big-box chains.
The lawsuit alleges that allowing some vendors to send books to incarcerated individuals but not others violates the rights to free speech and equal protection under the law guaranteed by the First and 14th Amendments.
“The Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office policy maintains the safety and security of our staff and inmates,” the department said in a statement to Flagpole. “It does not limit the content or subject matter of the publication, but only the origin of the shipment. The Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office will not comment further on pending litigation.”
Avid is represented in the lawsuit by Zack Greenamyre, an Atlanta civil rights lawyer.
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