Hello Everyone, I am new to J.O. Davis forum. My son was transferred there four weeks ago, from Kilby. As JimmysMom stated, my son also, was allowed to call me the day of his transfer.
He turned his phone list in last Friday, the 12th and he has not called me yet. I received a letter from him today and he said that as of the 17th, it had not been approved, but that some of the guys list were approved in one day. So who knows how they do things!

Tonight I am very angry with J.O. Davis. I sent my son mail two weeks ago. It contained important information that he needed for his visitors list, stamps, envelopes, stamps(4ea.), Pictures of his 3 year old(my grandson), pictures my grandson colored for his Daddy, and my letter.

My son informed me, in the letter I received from him today that; my letter arrived on the 11th, he received a receipt, from whoever processes the mail, telling him that he had received the letter, but that it had religious content and they were withholding it! He said that it may be three weeks before the Captain would call him in to view the package!

:angry:The content they have labeled religous is; On my letter head there is a clip art picture of a little angel on one side and a cross on the other! This is the same letter head, I have used to write to him on, in the county and at Kilby. I have also sent one other letter on the same letter head, to J.O. Davis, He got the first one! What a Crock is this?!!

I am going to call everyone that I have to, starting Monday morning and try and find out just what the heck is going on! This is ridiculous! This has to be some kind of violation of rights! :rolleyes: I don't know what idiot looked at my letter and decided, "The Guardian Angel" and the cross was not appropriate. Of course, we all know, they can do what ever they want and there is very little we can do about it!

All to say, be careful what you send, as your loved one may not get it. He really needed the info I had written!

BTW; my son is in the work release at J.O.Davis/Fountain. I live in MS, so it is about a seven hour drive for me now, but I am glad he is not at Kilby!

He told me in his letter that he had become friends with a guy, whos mother lives in MI. I think JimmysMom may be his friends Mom. Jamey stated that his friends mom was on the forum also. If so, Hello Jamey's friends Mom!

I will be so glad when this long road is OVER!

I will let you all know how the mail issue turns out.

jdw's mom

That is so stupid and unfair and it is whoever is in the mailroom. If that's the case and your not suppose to have religious material than why are most of the goverment funded programs they offer faith based???? Make those calls because someone is just being an A--H---!

That is rediculous. Inmates are allowed to have Bibles and go to sermons. Your letterhead should have been seen as no consequence. Good luck and I hope someone gets fired over this issue.

That really bites. They seem to have their favorites and the ones they pick on at every prison. It is totally not fair. Please make sure that you make those calls, they need to know about what's going on with these people.

OMG !!! Since when is having religious material a crime anyways???? That's unbelievable !!! I hope you are able to get something done

Well that is absolutely ridiculous. I have never heard in eight years of dealing with this crazy system of them rejecting ANYTHING religious.

There are thousands of inmates at ADOC facilities all over the state who receive the Prisoner to Prisoner pamphlets and other religious material. Catholic inmates get several of the Catholic magazines and pamphlets that are out there. And the list could go on and on.

Not to mention if ADOC starts saying no religious material, they are setting themselves up for a bunch of major lawsuits.

JDWs, it sounds like someone in that mailroom has got their head up their butt. I would call the head warden's office and ask since when did any ADOC facility start disallowing any religious materials and papers thru the mail?

I have a feeling whoever made that decision on your mail is about to get a talking to once you report this. Unless this is some brand new ADOC rule (and I feel certain it's not), that is just absolutely incorrect and any ADOC facility that starts enforcing anything like that is certainly setting themselves up for a religious freedom lawsuit... which is the kind they try to avoid.

Case in point - ADOC facilities do not serve real pork products because they don't want to wind up with a lawsuit from the Muslim community.

If they do that, then they darn sure can accept a picture of a cross and an angel on letterhead going to a Christian inmate. :rolleyes:

In any case, I have a suspicion this rejection was a mistake on the mailroom's part, big time.

Hello again, My son finally received my letter on Saturday! He was told that all religious material had to be approved by the Captain and come through the Chaplain! Yes, whoever was in that mail room and opened my letter should have, PAID A LITTLE MORE ATTENTION to the contents and not focus on the CLIP ART PICTURES! I am determined to get to the root and source, so that this will not happen again! It was almost two weeks, before he finally received my letter and as I stated earlier, It was filled with information that HE really needed.

It also took Kilby almost four weeks to forward the money, he had on his books there, to J.O. Davis. I stayed on the phone, two days last week playing phone tag, trying to get an answer on this situation. Finally, I was told that it was mailed to J.O. Davis on the 12th. (He was moved to J.O. on August 25th). This past Sunday, when I talked to him he still did not have a receipt for the money. So, here goes the phone again, It was finally posted to his account yesterday! The men who were transferred, the same day he was, received theirs in One Week.

Now I see, what I have heard all my life, just what Lost In The System Is Really All About! I do not know how the men and women who are incarcerated, without the support of family and friends, Survive! If they do not have someone on the outside to check into things, They are Stuck and in Trouble.

Our loved ones may be, Just a Number To Them, but they are OUR SONS, DAUGHTERS, Husbands, Wives, Mothers and Fathers! REGARDLESS!

Oh how I wish I had gone into Criminal Justice, as my career! If I had known then, what I know now, I WOULD HAVE. Isn't it funny how we never pay attention to these things util, THEY TOUCH OUR LIVES! Now I know why people become Activist!

God Help Us All,
jdw's mom :)

Honestly, I would complain to the Warden about this "all religious material approved" anyway, jdws. Especially since what you sent was as insignificant as clip art pictures.

There is NO other Alabama facility I'm aware of that's doing that and like I said, that is exactly the kind of thing that's going to set themselves up for a lawsuit if they're not careful.

If it were me, I'd probably write a letter to the warden with a copy to the commissioner.

Hello JDWs Mom,

It's hard to know what to put in your letters you send your son to JO/ Davis.

My son has been at Davis since April. When he was at Bullock I always sent puzzel pages copied on plain paper, jokes, relgious sayings with beautiful pictures on them. I spent hours eack week looking for things on the internet to give him a smile. I always limited my letters to 20 pages, as he was called into the captains office once at Bullock for my sending to many pages.

The first letter I wrote to him at JO/ Davis I sent the same things.He received it.
The 2nd letter I wrote to him was not given to him as they said he could not receive puzzels. I didn't send anymore.
He enjoyed sharing these things with his friends.Jimmy really looked forward to receiving all the different things and it gave him many smiles.

He has been called into the captains office 3 times for things I sent and each time it was something different. It's hard to know what you can receive there. Perhaps it's the mood the mail clerk is in when she reads the letters.

I feel it's so foolish for them to hold up his letter from you because of a letter head.

I now limit my letters to just a letter and photos.

Please call them and ask what you are allowed to send.

I'll ask my son when I talk to him if he knows your son, Jamey. Hello also to you and I will keep you all in my thoughts and prayers.

If you do call, please let us know what they say.

JDWs.... I was thinking about this again and it occurred to me you might want to call the ACLU and speak to them about this.

They can't be stamping out religious freedom among prisoners without edging close to the lawsuit line, and this other stuff that Jimmies Mom just mentioned.... that's just ridiculous.

Whoever's in charge of the mailroom down there it sounds like they have got issues with needing to feel extra important by denying so much stuff.... but a lot of that stuff is the kind of thing ADOC could get slapped with a lawsuit about, easy.

Going to the chapel in Fountain this weekend