Has anyone had the problem where the facility is delivering all of your mail to your husband at the end of the week. For some reason the are holding his mail and he gets it all on Friday. I end up getting letters from him asking me why I haven't written and I have been sending him 2 pieces of mail a day!!
It usually only takes 2 days for him to get the mail. What is going on?


They did this when he went to the box last year, held his mail just to be mean, but I don't understand why they are doing it now.

I dont think they need a reason sweetie unfortunately.......they just nasty n mean some of them and they get a warped satisfaction out of it. I am sorry this is happening with your letters to him. I know exactly how u feel as most in here do many a time. We just have to not let them wear us down. Its a power trip with some. The past month or so my fiance is only getting 20% of my letters cause they r disappearing, as does his mail to me. They sometimes hold his letters to me for up to a week before sending out too. I think its so sad that some of our men think we are not writing. Im lucky I guess in that I never get questioned. I hope the mail sorts out for u soon. Unfortunately its something none of us gets used to. They cant keep us down with their petty games. Only if we let them.

Thanks Ozziegirl, I guess I really knew that was the answer but was hoping I was wrong. I guess since things have been going well for us lately, they feel the need to spice things up a bit. My husband should know better but sometimes he just freaks out. :)

Please note.. this is a personal theory.. however its a pretty popular one!

The mail clerks walk in on Monday and start sorting the mail... More than likely the mail room is short handed maybe every day, maybe someone is on vacation, out on sick leave, etc. its Monday, who feels like working HARD on Monday. Maybe even the state has cut their budget so there just isn't enough staff to handle ALL that mail!

So.. the end of the day comes on Monday and not all the mail is sorted.. everybody goes home.

Tuesday comes, MORE mail delivered...most likely dumped right on top of the left over mail from Monday.

the day ends....... and so goes the week.

Friday hits! There's a stack of mail and the supervisor says "get it done, no mail is to be left in the mail room over the weekend."

Mail employees - and maybe some reassigned employees from other areas - rush like crazy to get ALL the mail out of the mail room so ZINGO ZANGO the inmates all get a bunch of mail on Friday.

ZINGO ZANGO! LOL

Makes sense MrsDragon. I hope all of the people that were on vacation are back and rested and everyone who was sick is feeling better!

I can imagine what you have been through to develope a personal theory like this!
Thanks for sharing it. It puts the whole thing in a sane perspective.

Sorry sweetie, I haven't heard anything about that. I think its a personal issue with the CO's. They are known to take their anger out on the inmates

The mailrooms are understaffed, usually. The prison population has exploded in recent years and they haven't put on enough mailroom staff to accomodate that. Add in that with the internet there are thousands and thousands of people writing to prisoners now who never would have before the internet pen pal sites got so popular. Mailroom staff may never even have ever worked the cellblocks. Mrs. Dragon is exactly right. It's not some evil plot to pick on inmates. It's just simply not enough mailroom staff to process all the mail coming in. It's easy for mail to get lost with the volume of mail that comes in, too. It just takes as long as it takes, that's all, so we have to work with that.

Here's one for ya------I write to someone in Pelican Bay SHU and on Saturday I got a letter postmarked August 10th. When I opened the letter, he had written it on Friday the 13th. Figure that one out! He keeps good track of his days, so it really was Friday the 13th when he wrote it. I wrote back and told him he needs to slow down a bit because he's mailing letters three days before he writes them. LOL He had also written inside a card on Aug. 4th and that one had the August 10th postmark, too. Pelican Bay postmarks their own mail, by the way. It's not postmarked by an outside post office. He's very organized and writes his letters the same day he "mails" them because the guards pick up the mail at night. I guess August 10th just sounded like a good postmark date for the whole month of August??

Thank you toi_ama, great antidote!
These responses give me ways to calm him down when he starts to freak and get extra paranoid. I truly appreciate it.
NY

Hi, I'm new here. My 28 yr. old son is in Snake River, OR and is in the hole "again", adding 24 mos to his sentence - he wrote saying it's because a guard urinated on his pillow and got sick of it and attacked the guard where he was beat up by 5 of the guards. Now of course he is having mail problems. (I don't know if what he says is true, but it wouldn't surprise me.) Anyway, I wanted to know if it is possible to send him copies of what is said in the forum as useful info for him, but I don't want to do anything that would keep him from getting his mail. Any help appreciated.

Hi everyone,
Well something is definately going on with the mail. My man is at DVI in Tracy and he hasn't gotten a letter from me since 8/19 and I write to him everyday. Just got a letter from him that he wrote on Wednesday postmarked yesterday saying he's wondering what's wrong cuz he's gotten no mail from me. It saddens me that he's so worried and no way of me telling him that it's not me. AH well! I work in a mailroom for a gov't agency that has over 300 employees but every day I do it, no matter what. And I tend to the recepetion desk and take walk ins every day! So in a way I understand, just very frustrating. And can you believe that today I received 10 returned letters I mailed to my baby while he was at County that were received there after he was transferred? All the letters were postmarked the first week of July and I get them today RTS/NIC, talk about holding the mail. Anyways, hope everyone is having a great day.

Missy

Anyway, I wanted to know if it is possible to send him copies of what is said in the forum as useful info for him, but I don't want to do anything that would keep him from getting his mail. Any help appreciated.
Hi Gardening Mom! Glad to see you again. Wish the circumstances were different.

I send Fellah PTO thread print outs all the time with no problems. I have sent legal information, jokes and just general blah blah that might peak his interest.

But, Fellah isn't in the hole and is in another facility, in another state. Send it... see what happens.

JJT

The mailrooms are understaffed, usually. The prison population has exploded in recent years and they haven't put on enough mailroom staff to accomodate that.... It's just simply not enough mailroom staff to process all the mail coming in. It's easy for mail to get lost with the volume of mail that comes in, too. It just takes as long as it takes, that's all, so we have to work with that.


It isn't just the Prison mail room either. The CITY post office may be old and understaffed.

Fellah is in Airway Heights CC, in Airway Heights, WA. The cities post office has not been updated or modernized in over 20 years and is completely overwhelmed getting the mail over to the prison.

There was a news article in the Spokane newspaper about it. And now Airway Heights (the city) has approved development for over 2000 homes and several businesses to come into the area. The cities Post Office has to upgrade now, but no one seems to want to pay for it.....

When mail is lost of slowed down.... who knows what can happen to it after it leaves your hand into the mail box!! The postal worker who empties the box, the automated sorter at the sending PO, the automated (hopefully) sorter at the receiveing PO, then another postal carrier who delivers it to the prison, then the prison mail room, then the Unit superviser, then finally into our loved ones hands.

Okay, that is my 2 cents.

JJT