I'm asking for your help, friend. Right now, the Biden Administration is depriving incarcerated people of their personal mail. This policy is cruel, and we’re fighting against it. Will you join us?
Take action against the federal Bureau of Prison’s ban on personal mail by emailing Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Mail is a lifeline for incarcerated people, providing a crucial link to the outside world. People inside prisons treasure the mail they receive — whether it’s a greeting card from a loved one, a drawing from a child, or a letter from an outside advocate. At JDI, we send thousands of letters to incarcerated survivors each year in response to their requests for help; so do rape crisis counselors and other organizations that support prisoners across the U.S.
But under a privately run pilot program that the Biden Administration has signaled it plans to expand, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is sending incoming mail to a for-profit company for processing. The company, Smart Communications, then creates scanned copies of every piece of mail. This means incarcerated people don’t receive the mail intended for them. Instead, they have to read their mail as a scanned, poor quality print out, on the screen of shared kiosks located in public areas of the prison, or on a tablet provided by Smart Communications for the expressed purpose of getting them to use — and pay for — the company’s other electronic services. The original letters and cards are destroyed. 
The mail-scanning program is invasive, harmful, and unnecessary. Its stated purpose is to limit drugs, but there’s little evidence that it does so. What we do know is that by sending the mail off-site to be scanned, BOP is undermining one of few ways that people in prison can communicate privately. To make matters worse, many of the scans are hard to read — and even harder, if not impossible, for people with certain vision disabilities. And if your tablet breaks or you don’t feel safe reading personal mail on a public kiosk, then, well, you’re just out of luck.
Why would the Biden Administration support a harmful program that doesn’t even work? The answer is that the company that runs it is eager to gain a foothold in the lucrative — and exploitative — prison communications business. Yes, that’s right — the same Administration that has taken steps to curb prison privatization is now letting a private company profit off of incarcerated people. And, as always, it is the people who are locked up who will suffer.
We can’t let this stand. If BOP's pilot ban on mail continues to grow, state prisons and county jails nationwide will follow suit — many of them already have. Join us today in demanding BOP end this cruel program now.
Sincerely,
Linda McFarlane
Executive Director |
