Prison slams door on criminal-author

RALEIGH, N.C., July 7 (UPI) -- A North Carolina inmate's novelist career violates prison policies against conducting a business behind bars, say officials.

Victor Martin, a 32-year-old habitual felon with several theft-related convictions, has written four novels while at a state prison in Elizabeth City. But now prison officials have confiscated his manuscripts and are disciplining him for writing under a policy he intends to legally challenge, the Raleigh News-Observer reported Monday.

"When I'm trying to do something positive, they want me to stop," Martin said in a telephone interview from the Elizabeth City prison. "The way I see it, they want me to stay stagnant and not do anything."

Attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina have sent a letter to officials with the state Department of Correction.

"There is no evidence that his writing is posing a danger," said Katherine Lewis Parker, legal director with the ACLU's North Carolina branch. They also note that Martin's sales on Amazon.com have yet to return any significant profit and that he plays only a small role in business affairs related to publishing of his urban fiction," a literary genre that focuses on inner-city crime life.