Pennsylvania inmates boycott for-profit prison mail.
The following are excerpts from an article about a Florida-based prison profiteer, Smart Communications US, Inc. which is privatizing inmate mail FOR PROFIT. When will it end?
A PA inmate is urging “all prisoners to immediately cease sending and accepting mail in response to the draconian new prison policies of current Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf.
Eliminating the right of prisoners to send and receive correspondence via postal service is the most controversial aspect of a sweeping crackdown imposed in September by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. Prisoners will no longer be allowed to receive mail directly at state correctional facilities. Instead, their mail is being routed through a third-party company that rakes in profits from the enslavement of U.S. workers.
The PDOC awarded a $4 million contract to Smart Communications, a Florida-based firm that bills itself as a “family-owned business” with “a reputation as the true innovator in the prison marketplace.”
Under the contract, Smart receives all letters and photographs, photocopies them, stores the contents on its private servers and then forwards the photocopies to prisoners. Smart’s website boasts, “We currently have over 50 clients worldwide.” That means the company is paid to seize, open and duplicate the private correspondence of prisoners held in over 50 U.S. facilities. Pennsylvania is the 19th state to hire the company.
NOTE: INCLUDING FLORIDA!
[The Inmate’s] boycott announcement comes as the American Civil Liberties Union and many public defenders have announced their intention to stop sending legal mail through the Pennsylvania prisons.
“Every prisoner must act as an individual and as a collective front not to send mail to the third party,” he said. “This is not only a breach of our privacy but a breach of attorney-client privilege.”
Under the Smart system, all supposedly protected correspondence pertaining to prisoners’ legal cases is handled — and opened — by prison staff. Copies are made and given to prisoners, but the originals are retained by the PDOC for 15 days, after which they are allegedly destroyed. Regular personal correspondence is stored on Smart servers for seven years. Video recordings of the mail-opening process are supposed to be purged every five days.
“But [the purging of legal correspondence] is a flat out lie, What they’re not telling you is that they’re keeping it. And they can use it against you at any point in the future.”
The Innocence Project, the Abolitionist Law Center and the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project are partnering with the ACLU to bring a lawsuit against the PDOC for this unprecedented attack on attorney-client confidentiality, which they say is “indefensible.”
The for-profit privatization of the prison mail system is having a deadly, chilling effect on prisoners’ legal right to private correspondence with their defense attorneys and on their much-needed human contact with the outside world.
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I have a mail guard tracker number and account and have sent mail from Pennsylvania to my inmate at SCI Camphill Daily since 9/25/2018 . No mail has yet been tracked in as received by Smart Communications in Florida as of 10/5 /2018 . I have emailed Smart Communications 4 times since 10/1/2018 and called them twice , once on 10/3/18 and again on 10/4/18 . They say they will check into my issue and call me back but they do not , nor do they reply to my email . I called the mail room at SCI Camp Hill and they confirmed that they have received no mail for my inmate from Smart Communications. My mail and return address ,complete with my mail guard tracker number is addressed exactly correctly per the instructions on the PA DOC web page , their Facebook page and their “ twitter “ message as well per the instructions in my mail guard tracker account . It has been 2 weeks and my inmate has received NO mail from home . I can not get a response from Smart Communications. It’s very frustrating as my inmate does not yet home their phone list approved . When he left for Camp Hill the family promised to write daily and we have . He is left thinking we have forgotten him most likely which is so sad for a new inmate , in his first prison stay ever . Has anyone else experienced this issue ? Thank you so much !
I don’t have any experience with prison mail in any state other than Michigan, but up here it was not uncommon to see my mail delivered to me as much as 2 weeks after it was postmarked. That was with the prison mail room handling the mail. I wouldn’t doubt that it could take longer with an understaffed, private company handling everyone’s mail. Especially if its employees don’t organize the system with a first-in, first-out system. I also suspect that they wrote their contract with the state in a way to relieve them of any legal responsibility for errors or lost mail. The prison staff is just as much against privatization of services as inmates are. They know it threatens their own jobs. So it is unlikely that they will be of any help. I observed that most correctional officers realized how important mail is to inmates, and they took care to see that it was delivered correctly. A private company has NO connection with inmates. They don’t care how sloppy the system is. I’m sure that they hire the cheapest labor they can find, and give them minimal training. The whole thing stinks.
I am also having the same issue! I have sent a ton of letters, but my husband is not getting them. He has received only one out of many I have sent, and two weeks after I sent it. This is ridiculous. No phone yet for him either, nor visits. This is definitely not acceptable.
We are both going through the same thing Mrs . Bear and we are just two of likely thousands . Nobody seems to care , not Smart Communications or the state of Pennsylvania. It doesn’t seem right that because you are an inmate you can’t have mail from home . These seem like tactics used by terrorist camps and POW Camps , not a humane society that the USA is supposed to be .
I agree, Don, no one seems to care. I feel like I have been screaming at the wind. These are really sick tactics for sure. I can’t visit my husband, nor can he call. He’s isolated with nothing! He was told they don’t have records on him yet. It’s been a month as of today. I am hoping this craziness ends soon; the ACLU is addressing it at least.
It definitely sounds like there trying to control everything like a prison camp, everybody RIGHTS are being rooming, i can not send my brother no money, they don’t have a site are number to call to send money, i try all the jaypay in a couple more, they all are saying that jail is not showing up, now that told me something right there like something is not right
I filed complaint with bbb.com. You can also file complaints with fcc and postal police. Its federal offence to steal any mail! Its breach of contract when smart communications is recieving money and not fulfilling service promised. As taxpayers its your civic duty to file complaints and be whistle blower.
My husband is in SCI FAYETTE and they’ve only updated my mail tracker three times. I sent pictures on 10/1 and he still hasn’t gotten them. He gets mail but nothing gets updated. I put my account number next to my name so I have no idea why it doesn’t up update. He’s gotten cards from 9/26 this week. PA DOC is spending $4M a year for a service that seems unreliable. How does it take 19 days for him to get his pictures? 16 if you take 3 days off from NJ to FL.
Prisons are having huge problem with these for-profit mail vendors. They make the prisons money because they cut the services (mail delivery).
We will keep you informed if there are any lawsuits over this.
Lisa, their system plain sucks! My husband is in SCI Phoenix. I have just contacted a few civil rights attorneys and the ACLU. Governor Wolf and DOC Secretary John Wetzel do not even respond to anything. Since hubby isn’t allowed phone calls, his probable cause hearing was held without his attorney present. He can’t even call his own lawyer. I just started using the mail tracker, but seems it is pointless anyway pursuant to what you and others are saying. UGH!
I have a loved one as well in SCI Phoenix. He can not use the phone yet or have visits. Letters are the only thing he has to look forward to. I have sent 3 so far and none have yet to get to him. It seems no one wants to get back to me when i try to find out where my letters are that i sent weeks ago.
I have a nephew who is in camp hill state all mail has been return thats been going on since aug. They return everything so no one actually know if they are ok so this is unfair too
What is going on Gov.Wolf is REEEALLY trying to control everybody lives, this is so WRONG in every aspect, they are really trying to break us and them, but i will say GOD don’t like ugly, What can we do as loves ones to help, I’m trying to send my brother some money and they don’t have a system for that
The exploitation of this email scheme is basically kicking someone when they are down and simply shows that the prison system is an abusive and opportunistic institution that takes advantage of those least able to defend themselves!
As a country AMERICA should be ashamed or I should say that AMERICAN politicians (with few exceptions) should be ashamed to allow this and so many other abuses to exist!
Where other countries actively attempt to reintegrate those who have made mistakes back into their society, the American prison system does just the opposite. Are these really core American values OR have they been hijacked. I think it is very clear…Shame on all of them! Including but Lauren Book!
I think it is fine to put protections in place for people that have to deal with mail going in and out of prisons. I don’t have a problem with that at all (as long as the content of legal/attorney mail is not examined or used). I don’t have a problem with requiring that inmates pay for it either.
What I do have a problem with is somebody making a profit off of it. That is immoral. End of story.
BTW, her name is Lauren Crook, not Book. LOL
Just the U.S. continuing to devolve. I do think that people who are imprisoned should pay for it. But no moral person could make a profit off of that. No moral person could allow that either.
The U.S. lost their moral leadership long ago. Today, we are nothing but a bunch of rich a**holes. That rich part is going to continue to keep devolving too. Direct consequence of low morals.
Okay folks, LISTEN UP. Mail theft is exactly what this is.
https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2011-title18/html/USCODE-2011-title18-partI-chap83-sec1708.htm
Families and inmates both can file FEDERAL complaints and lawsuits relating to this. In fact, this could easily become a class action lawsuit and the “family owned” business that is doing this in concert with the prison can easily go to prison themselves for this.
It’s one thing to make exceptions and have mail opened for filtering of contraband AT the prison where the mail is received. It’s something else entirely to withhold that mail from the inmate and create a digital copy.
Every family member and inmate should place a COPYRIGHT notice on that mail but copyright still applies here. Works created by people are protected under copyright law. I see this as not only physical mail theft, but digital piracy of that mail for provit.
Please pursue this. This one should be EASY.
Oh wait, this is Florida, isn’t it?
It is happening in pennsylvania too everything comes back saids return resticted send blank notebook paper stamps envelopes to nephew they kept them said they couldn’t have them put yet other prisions allow inmates to received them
I’m wondering why someone found it necessary to copy and store inmate mail in the first place. What exactly is the underlying problem? Is that problem recurring or an isolated incident? Most important, is this an actual solution or just action for action’s sake? And how many other problems will be caused by this solution?
it started ( in Fl anyway ) when Polk County figured that a couple of inmates letters had been written on paper that had been sprayed with K-2… http://www.theledger.com/news/20180911/polk-sheriffs-office-changes-inmate-mail-protocol-after-k2-smuggling-investigation
Said employees and inmates were getting sick some people were getting some kind of drugs
I was in prison for 12 years in Michigan. For many inmates, the only connection with family and friends was through the mail. It was bad enough that the mail room was reckless when opening mail, slicing through letters and photos. But at least it was something from home that you could touch and feel a connection with. This stupid policy takes away that personal connection. For the most part, the prisons handled legal mail correctly, always opening it in the presence of the inmate, and performing a quick examination for contraband WITHOUT actually reading any of it. I wouldn’t trust, for one minute, that this private company won’t share inmates’ legal mail with prosecutors in the case. The whole thing stinks.
Although I will not at all make myself known to this community until after Probation I will gladly share and market any legal or fundraising effort on this front. I was in the system for a time and completely agree that this is the straw that breaks the system. Please comment with any additional information including links to fundraising attempts for this endeavor.
Thank you.
Anon for now.