Typically, the report starts out talking about terrorist's mail and eventually expands to saying how all inmate mail needs to be screened more thoroughly. This is how we ended up with telephone time limits in the BOP - the DOJ did a study on inmate phone calls and criticized the BOP for not monitoring them enough. The BOP didn't have the staff to monitor all the phone calls so they limited the number and length of calls in order to comply. Now the mail...


Report: U.S. prisons fail to screen terrorists' mail


http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/10/03/terror.mail.ap/index.html

Do you think that will hold up ALL inmate mail or mostly apply to those classified "high risk"?

Screening of Mail at Federal Prisons Lags

Terrorists Were Able to Send Letters to Sympathizers Overseas, Report Says

By Dan Eggen (http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/email/dan+eggen/)
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; Page A16


Three terrorists imprisoned in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing were able to send more than 90 letters to alleged terrorists overseas because U.S. prison officials do not screen all correspondence from the most dangerous inmates as required, according to a report released yesterday.

An investigation by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons does not have enough translators or intelligence analysts to properly screen incoming and outgoing communications, including mail and telephone calls.

The prison bureau said in a statement issued yesterday that it agrees with
Fine's recommendations...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301285.html

Wow.....it just seems things keep getting more and more difficult for things that used to be so simple.

How is outgoing mailed screened anyway?

Outgoing mail is sent sealed unless it is going to another institution. While in theory, the screening is a good idea, they simply cannot achieve this without significant increases in mailroom staff.

I was incarcerated during 9/11 and we had the Anthrax scares. For about 4 days, staff wore latex gloves during mail call. They set policies with big plans for adherance, but at most institutions, they could foul up a two car parade.

At some institutions, outgoing mail is required to be handed in by the inmates unsealed. What I was trying to say by my post (and my reference to the phones) is that it always seems to go that they start with complaints about high-risk wrong-doers and then they change the policies to apply to everyone and make it more restrictive. And cut some program(s) to pay for the extra staff/equipment to implement it. That is the way of the BOP. So I hate seeing articles like this because it's usually "just the beginning..." Z.

I guess my question is...are letters scanned electronically? Wouldn't that be faster than having someone open and really try to skim over to catch some randoms words on a what could be 10 page letter?

I don't know...at Oxford he has to turn his letters in unsealed and I just don't get why.

They have to turn in letter unsealed so a staff member can review the content of them before they're mailed out. My husband's mail has to be turned in unsealed and, when I receive the letter, it has someone's initial handwritten across the sealed part. Z.

Ah...Now I know what that was-I thought that it was someone mucking around on the envelope!In that case in Marion they hand them in sealed and in Victorville unsealed..And for the record,I was praising the prison for the quickness of handling the mail-well,I wish I had kept my mouth shut,I have now been waiting for two weeks for letters he says he has sent out!!

Ah...Now I know what that was-I thought that it was someone mucking around on the envelope!In that case in Marion they hand them in sealed and in Victorville unsealed..And for the record,I was praising the prison for the quickness of handling the mail-well,I wish I had kept my mouth shut,I have now been waiting for two weeks for letters he says he has sent out!!


Not all facilities initial unsealed mail...

Every location we have been with...no mail has been able to be sealed.

Each and everytime we build up....they toss it up a little!