No Mail for You: How Mail Scanning Policies are Destroying Inmates and their Families
Prisons in over 15 states no longer deliver physical mail. Birthday cards, letters, and family photos now all must get scanned and uploaded to an inmate's tablet. Those without a tablet can pay for a printed color copy of the mail. The process is slow and flawed; mail often can take months to arrive, the quality of the scans is abysmal. What's worse, the purported benefit of reducing drugs and dangerous contraband from entering facilities never came to fruition. In fact, Missouri reported more drug overdoses a year after their Mail Scanning Policy was implemented. In this week's episode, Big Steve unveils the real reasons why prisons have implemented these draconian measures. The answer may surprise and sadden you. He will also explore the ways these sadistic policies by prison officials have created more harm than good for everyone involved.
This is such a huge issue, and what Big Steve discussed in this episode only begins to scratch the surface. In fact, since this episode was recorded, over a year ago, things have gotten significantly worse. So many State DOCs have switched to "Virtual Mail" in some form or other. Many letters and pictures get scanned and delivered to an inmate's tablet, or to a kiosk they can access in the day room. Some states photocopy the letter, and don't let the inmate have the original; often the copies are poor quality, black and white. Making matters so much worse is that due to these new procedures, mail frequently gets lost, or can take up to two months to get delivered. Think of it - you send your loved one a happy birthday letter today, and he or she won't receive it for months (and may never receive it at all).
We fully believe that in the next couple of years, prison officials will start switching things back to how they used to be, and eliminating some of these mail scanning policies. They simply don't work - and by restricting mail to such a degree, they're essentially making inmates more likely to reoffend once released, and more likely to relapse while incarcerated. It is widely known that a good social network, and good communication with family and friends, is crucial to effective rehabilitation.
Listen to this episode, but keep in mind what we discussed here was only the tip of the iceberg. And for anyone who has actually used GettingOut as an email system in the past, you already know how terrible it is - constant crashing, glitches, emails limited to only 32 lines -- it's hardly a tool for effective communication. It's given us more than a few migraines...and that was just today!