Senate Backs Media Meetings With Prisoners

SACRAMENTO — Rejecting claims that Charles Manson, Sirhan Sirhan and Richard Allen Davis soon would fill family television screens, the Senate voted Thursday to make state prison convicts available for news media interviews.

The administration of Gov. Pete Wilson adopted a policy two years ago that prohibits members of the print, radio and television media from conducting personal interviews with prisoners. Contact by telephone or mail is allowed.

Administration officials deny that the policy impedes a free flow of information. They say it deters tabloid television shows from “glamorizing” vicious criminals.

But on a bipartisan vote that broke customary liberal versus conservative lines on prison issues, the Senate passed a bill to repeal the policy. Instead, the bill would impose a requirement that convicts who agree to be interviewed must be made available for face-to-face sessions, provided the meetings do not jeopardize prison security or public safety.

The bill (SB 434) by Sen. Quentin L. Kopp (I-San Francisco) went to the Assembly on a 22-8 vote, one more than the majority required. But gubernatorial spokesman Sean Walsh said he believes Wilson would veto the bill.

“We’re not interested in the glamorization or commercialization of serial murderers and other heinous criminals,” Walsh said.

During debate on the bill, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), a former prosecutor, said he feared that the bill would enable TV to put “Charles Manson, Richard Allen Davis [killer of Polly Klaas] and Sirhan Sirhan on a daily talk show.”

Sen. Charles Calderon (D-Whittier), a potential candidate for attorney general next year, warned that access to notorious convicts might spawn a new round of television magazine-style shows and “create new curiosity-seeker niche markets” for broadcasters.

“The idea is when you do the crime, you do the time. You shouldn’t do the crime and end up on prime time,” he said.

But backers of the bill, including liberal Sen. John Burton (D-San Francisco) and conservative Sen. Ross Johnson (R-Irvine), joined in asserting that Californians have a right to know what is happening behind prison walls.

“A free, democratic society doesn’t have anything to fear from a free, unfettered press,” Johnson said.

Burton argued that existing law and the bill would give prison officials ample authority to deny interviews. Kopp also contended that few outside the prison system would know of abuses inside if it were not for news groups expressing their 1st Amendment rights.