Mar. 9--RALEIGH -- Prison inmates in North Carolina will be able to write novels and other manuscripts and send them to publishers without interference from guards under a settlement reached with the ACLU.

The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina Legal Foundation arrived at the settlement announced Monday with the N.C. Department of Correction after filing a federal lawsuit on behalf of Victor L. Martin, a thief who has published a number of novels about street life while in prison.

Martin's work features gangsters and hustlers and raw language. He writes novels filled with sex, drugs and violence, and his lawyer thinks that's why prison officials challenged his writing. "The evidence seemed pretty strong in this case that he was singled out because of what he was writing," attorney W. Swain Wood said.

Martin charged that he had been denied his First Amendment rights after staff members at Raleigh's Central Prison confiscated a 310-page handwritten manuscript for a novel titled "Redemption Thru Peace." The lawsuit claimed the manuscript was destroyed.

The prison system countered that Martin's publishing enterprise violated the department's policy against prisoner-operated businesses. Prisons spokesman Keith Acree wrote in an e-mail that the department settled the lawsuit to avoid the cost of a trial. He also said that prison officials believe the manuscript was returned to Martin and that he mailed it out of prison.

Martin, 34, is a habitual felon with several theft-related convictions, and is to be released in 2018. Now housed at Johnston Correctional Institution in Smithfield, he has not been a model prisoner, amassing 20 infractions over the last decade. His disciplinary record includes notations for disobeying orders, profane language, escape and performing a sexual act.

As part of the settlement, the Department of Correction paid $10,000 in damages and attorneys' fees and overturned 10 writing-related disciplinary infractions against Martin. In return, the ACLU-NCLF dropped its lawsuit.

For the purposes of the new policy, a manuscript can include fiction, nonfiction, poetry, music and cartoons, among other forms of writing. Inmates may not receive any compensation for their work.

Prisoners have long passed the time producing books, some of which have been critically praised. Jack Abbott wrote one of the most famous, "In the Belly of the Beast," a series of letters about prison life that he sent to writer Norman Mailer. The book was published in 1981.

Abbott was freed from prison after Mailer pushed for his parole. Abbott committed a murder not long after being released.

Martin's books

Martin's oeuvre has attracted little attention. He has about a half-dozen novels available for sale on Amazon, as well as several anthologies that include his work. Titles include "Menage's Way," in which the opening scene describes two men arriving in Miami Beach to a boulevard crowded with tricked-out cars and expensive motorcycles.

"All heads turned when a black Dodge Ram SRT-10 appeared. It was packed with girls dancing and stripping in the back as Too Short's 'Shake that Monkey' blared from its system. It was a sight to see as it slowly cruised down the street. 'Damn!' was all Dough-Low could say as a dark-skinned girl tossed him her thong."

Martin's books have had several publishers. One of them, Marcenia Waters of Charlotte, said a couple of years ago that she spent $4,000 of her own money to print 3,000 copies of another Martin book, "Unique's Ending." At the time of the interview, Waters said Martin had not yet made any money from the book, but planned to donate any profits to charity.

matt.ehlers@newsobserver.com or 919-829-4889

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