THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 8, 1996             TAG: 9602080382
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOE JACKSON AND LAURA LAFAY, STAFF WRITERS
INTERNET PROJECT IS DENIED ACCESS TO DEATH ROW INMATE.
MORE AND MORE, ACCESS TO INMATES IS BEING RESTRICTED.
A small army of writers, photographers and computer experts want to
freeze-frame death-row inmate Joseph O'Dell today for a world-wide
project on the diversity of life in cyberspace. But the state
Corrections Department won't let them.
The project, ``24 Hours in Cyberspace,'' is an effort to document at
least a portion of the on-line world for posterity and show how
computers are changing people's lives. O'Dell, the only prison inmate
featured, is one of a growing number of condemned men who have used
the Internet to publicize claims of innocence.
The problem is that the ``Cyberspace'' organizers ran head-on into
Corrections Director Ron Angelone's increasingly stringent policy of
denying face-to-face access to inmates by the media.
Just as the national media has started paying attention to the O'Dell
case, the Corrections Department has clamped down. In addition to
``Cyberspace'' organizers, prison officials have denied interviews
with O'Dell to ABC News and several state newspapers and TV stations,
state officials said.
O'Dell is just the tip of the iceberg. Virginia is one of three states
to recently implement policies restricting interviews between the
media and prisoners. A bill requiring more open media access to
prisoners is now working its way through the General Assembly.
At issue is a policy in which reporters who want to interview inmates
must go through Angelone, who rejects most requests for unspecified
security concerns. The Virginian-Pilot, for example, has been denied
six of seven interviews since last fall. Reporters with the Richmond
Times-Dispatch and The Roanoke Times have also been denied interviews.
``I've never seen it like this,'' said Ginger Stanley, executive
director of the Virginia Press Association. ``I've never seen it this
bad.''
Prisoner advocates call the ban on interviews a First Amendment issue,
saying inmates are being denied their right to get their stories
before the media. They also argue that more open media access would
help reveal problems in prisons, the fastest-growing segment of state
government.
Supporters of the policy say that the tougher policy is not a complete
ban. They warn that inmates could disrupt prisons with frequent press
conferences and wardens would lose control of their facilities.
O'Dell, for example, was not completely banned from participating in
the ``Cyberspace'' project, orchestrated by Rick Smolan, originator of
the popular ``Day in the Life'' photography series. Reporters and
photographers were not allowed into Mecklenberg Correctional Center,
but O'Dell was interviewed by phone, said Jane Gottesman, project
spokesperson.
Still, there were problems with photos. As the information is compiled
during the day, starting at 3:01 a.m. today, the project will become
available on the Internet's World Wide Web (and on the commercial
service, America Online) for viewing and discussion. Instead of
photographing O'Dell, organizers will photograph Lori Urs, one of
O'Dell's investigators, who helped him set up a site on the Internet
last summer. Urs will be photographed inside a Boston jail cell,
looking at a picture of O'Dell.
``The state said they denied us access for security reasons,''
Gottesman said Wednesday. ``They didn't really go into it. They were a
bit curt.''
O'Dell has said that new DNA tests, unavailable during his 1986 trial,
prove he did not kill a Virginia Beach secretary. Last summer, O'Dell
and his supporters aired his claims over an Internet ``home page, ''
challenging Virginia Beach prosecutors to a debate on national TV. In
December, the home page was featured on the front page of The New York
Times. A federal appeals court in Richmond is now considering O'Dell's
case.
In many ways, Virginia's clampdown is keeping pace with a national
trend toward making life harsher for criminals. Last year, Angelone
also instituted a policy restricting the amount and types of personal
items prisoners could keep in their cells.
The restricted access rules are also designed to make life easier for
the staff, supporters of the policy said. In that sense, Virginia is
following the lead of California, which initiated a ``temporary'' ban
on interviews in July while officials reviewed a rarely used policy
that had been in place for 20 years.
California's prison system - with 31 facilities and about 135,000
inmates - was being deluged with requests for interviews with
``celebrity'' prisoners like Charles Manson, whose songwriting became
a story last year. And a waiting list developed from reporters who
wanted to interview O.J. Simpson, had he been convicted.
In Indiana, the ban was not outright, but policies became more
restrictive. Death row inmates can only be interviewed by a single
news organization once every 90 days. All media inquiries now go to
the warden.
Amy Miller, spokeswoman for the Virginia prison system, would not
comment Wednesday on O'Dell's case. But she did say the restricted
policy developed last year when media requests for interviews rose
dramatically.
``The situation was getting out of hand,'' Miller said. ``We had
reporters and photographers in at least one prison every day, and we
have our security priorities.''
``For security reasons, we try to keep down the number of outsiders
from coming into prisons,'' Miller said.
``There's no ban,'' she added. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Death-row inmate Joseph O'Dell's home page (http://www.gbiz.com/odell/) will 
be blocked from ``24 Hours in Cyberspace.'' (http://www.Cyber24.com/)
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