San Mateo County sued over inmate mail
San Mateo County jail inmates could receive letters from family and friends until two years ago, when the county began shipping the mail to a digital company that scanned it, destroyed the paper copies and allowed the inmates only limited access on tablets and kiosks.
A lawsuit Thursday by free-speech groups contends the policy violates the rights of inmates and their families to privacy and freedom of expression.
“Physical mail is a lifeline for people in jail, and digital copies are not a meaningful substitute,” said attorney Stephanie Krent of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, one of the organizations that filed the suit in Superior Court on behalf of five inmates. “The county’s ban on physical mail severs the connection that people in jail rely on to stay in touch with their families, communities, and religious leaders.”
“We are deeply concerned about the growing practice of depriving people in jail and prison of valuable personal communications that are often their only connection to the outside world,” said attorney Pilar Gonzalez Morales of the Social Justice Legal Foundation.
The county and the office of Sheriff Christina Corpus did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The county jail in Redwood City has about 850 inmates. Starting in April 2021, the suit said, any mail addressed to them, except for letters from their lawyers, was forwarded instead to Smart Communications, a Florida company that scanned it and kept it digitized for at least seven years.
Inmates can view their mail only on shared tablet or kiosk software during brief daily recreational sessions, sometimes for as little as 30 minutes per day, the suit said. Krent said they share the software with as many as 50 others, although inmates can view their own messages individually.
Meanwhile, the digitized mail is made available to investigators from the sheriff’s and district attorney’s offices, who can view it without having to show suspicion of wrongdoing — a practice that subjects “the senders and recipients of mail to increased and unwarranted surveillance,” the suit said.
One explanation county officials have offered, the suit said, is that fentanyl and other drugs can be smuggled into letters. But there is little evidence to support that, the inmates’ lawyers said.
“Physical mail allows people to express themselves in ways that may feel too personal or sensitive for other modes of communication; it encourages deeper connection by giving correspondents the space to read and reflect before responding; and it evokes stronger and more lasting emotional meaning than digital correspondence,” the lawyers wrote.
They said the county’s policy also “violates the religious rights of many of the people in its jails, who received religious material by mail and used it in prayer and meditation.”
Krent, of the Knight First Amendment Institute, said inmate mail is also digitized in some other counties, including Contra Costa, which began its policy in November. But she said those counties, according to information available so far, deliver printed versions of the scanned mail to inmates, letting them view and keep the letters while also allowing surveillance by law enforcement.
The suit contends San Mateo County’s policy violates inmates’ rights under the state and U.S. constitutions and seeks a court order allowing them to regain access to their mail.