I know we have some prison staff here, so hopefully someone knows about this.
Prisoners in maximum security facilities, like ADX Florence, can send and receive letters and packages. Are these letters (both the ones the prisoners send, and the ones they receive from people on the outside) opened and inspected? And are the letters actually read by the guards?
Do prisoners retain some rights to having their correspondence be private? Or, as prisoners, are they not entitled to that?
In our local county jail all incoming and outgoing mail is censored. I have not got a cite, but it only makes sense that prison inmates would have their mail censored as well. One of our members works in the correctional system and I’m sure they will be able to provide accurate information.
On MSNBC’s “Lockup” program they often show the guards looking through the mail. They thoroughly look through each item for contraband. The mentioned looking at each item to make sure it hasn’t been tampered with to include drugs or something. The one I saw was holding a greeting card and said that sometimes they will separate the layers of the paper in the card to hide drugs in there. So I imagine they do open everything and look at it in close detail. I seem to recall him saying they do read the mail looking for gang messages and stuff like that.
AFAIK, only legal correspondence between inmates and attorneys are protected from censoring. And even those letters are inspected for contraband, but not read by prison staff.
In a word, YES.
I actually knew someone who’s job it was to read and censor letters. She was a volunteer worker. She didn’t talk much about it other than to say that some of the stuff was totally outrageous and she couldn’t believe how stupid people cold be, especially the girlfriends of inmates.
This. Except legal mail doesn’t have to be strictly between an inmate and attorney. There are a few other types of correspondence which are covered under the protection of legal mail.
And here’s why the mail is inspected: Man eats mail, dies
In brief, the kid’s ‘painting’ mailed to the inmate used pain containing buprenorphine, a potent opioid. The inmate ate the painting and died of an OD.
How do the censors know that it’s a legitimate attorney-client communication without reading it? Could I fake up some letterhead from what appears to be a legitimate law firm, write a paragraph of legalish sounding stuff at the top, discuss criminal stuff in the remainder of the letter, and have it get past the censors?
At a rehab I used to work at, some genius mailed a letter on blotter acid. The staff was none the wiser until the client flipped out. Policy after that was for staff to wear gloves while they were opening the mail, open the letter, photocopy the letter, and shred the original. All of this was done in the presence of the client to ensure that the staff member wasn’t intercepting the mail for his/her own purposes.
My own experience, at least with the Virginia system, is that the prison keeps a list for each inmate, and that list has the attorney and the associated firm. I can’t remember if that correspondence is opened to check for contraband but otherwise unread, or if it’s given to the inmate unopened without inspection. (IIRC, though, the letter is handed to the inmate unopened, but the inmate has to open it in the guard’s presence to check for contraband. I may be misremembering, though.) This list is kept so that the people who open inmate mail know who the attorney is, from people the inmate can’t contact, and people who can’t contact the inmate. The prison is good enough to stamp the inmate’s outgoing mail so the recipient knows it was read.
My son used to work in the prison mail room. I bought him the biggest bottle of hand sanitizer I could find. He said some of the letters were disgusting.
There are very strict guidelines as to what is permitted. No pens, pencils only, no hardcover books, only PB. Mail is screened for coded messages or gang art.
My son didn’t like to talk about working in the mail room. He just shuddered, and played Lady MacBeth, washing his hands a lot.
~VOW
In NY, they maintain a “Privileged Correspondence” list for each prisoner. Mail to/from those recipients is not opened. Neither is mail that’s addressed to members of the media. All other letters are submitted unsealed, and inspected.
Additionally, there’s a list of people the prisoner is not allowed to contact (victims, minors, people on parole, other prisoners, and anyone else who asks to be on the list).
All incoming mail is searched for contraband, and there is a long list of stuff that is prohibited. For example, inmates can only receive up to 5 pages of photocopies or other documents. They can’t get anything that has personal phone numbers, email addresses, or home addresses unless it’s a family member. They can’t get information on someone else’s arrest/sentence/etc…
I get mail from prisoners occasionally (I’m a reporter). Here’s more info on policies for NY prisons. (link - pdf)
What do you mean when you say “censored”? Are certain words actually blacked out or something?