How stupid and counter-productive can prison officials be? In Illinois, they come close to being idiots:

Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet will not allow its prisoners to read a 16-page newspaper written by its own inmates. Officials decided not to distribute "Stateville Speaks" because the maximum-security prison has other priorities, including running the facility that houses more than 2,500 prisoners, Illinois Department of Corrections spokesman Sergio Molina said.

The idea for the newspaper, published in newsletter form, came from an essay contest organized last summer by convicted murderer Renaldo Hudson. After 41 inmates at six of the state's prisons submitted entries, Hudson suggested a newspaper, anti-death penalty activist Bill Ryan said. Ryan secured computers, instructors and donations, but prison officials cited safety concerns and refused to allow the newspaper to be published at the prison.

Ryan self-published the first issue, which includes poems and essays about the dangers of drug use, surviving in prison and the hopelessness of being sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.