Detainee request redacted

From the Summer 2002 issue of The News Media & The Law, page 39.

In mid-July, the Immigration and Naturalization Service responded to a request from Charles Laszewski, a reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, for information on federal prisoners, most of whom appeared to be detainees held in local jails after the events of September 11.

As in New Jersey, they are held in Minnesota jails under contracts between local institutions and the federal government.

The agency sent Laszewski three pages of information blacked out except for the sex of each unidentified detainee and the date of his or her incarceration.

It claimed that disclosure of any other information would intrude upon their privacy. Laszewski was not even able to determine where the unidentified prisoners were held.

Laszewski appealed the denial in late July.