American Notes PRISONS

Convicted drug runner Brett C. Kimberlin, 36, claims he sold marijuana to Dan Quayle a dozen or so times in the 1970s and even smoked some with the future Vice President in 1971 at a fraternity party in Indiana. Serving a 50-year sentence in the Federal Correctional Institution in El Reno, Okla., for smuggling dope and taking part in a 1978 series of bombings in Speedway, Ind., Kimberlin tried to publicize his allegations four days before the 1988 election. But a funny thing happened before Kimberlin could conduct a jailhouse press conference: he was suddenly slapped into protective confinement and the conference abruptly canceled -- all on a personal order from Bureau of Prisons Director J. Michael Quinlan.

Now Kimberlin, who has been transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution in Memphis, is suing Quinlan, the Bureau of Prisons and a former Justice Department spokesman -- Loye Miller -- in federal court, alleging that in keeping him quiet they violated his free-speech rights. The prison bureau insists that the special detention was in line with standard policy governing prisoner contacts with news media. As for Quayle and pot, press secretary David Beckwith declared, "The Vice President has never used marijuana or, to his knowledge, met Brett Kimberlin."