Oversight board questions purpose of plan to digitize mail to Florida prisons

A state oversight board has questions about the corrections department’s proposal to digitize incoming mail to all state prisons, including how the change would improve safety and still provide the humane and rehabilitative environment state law requires for those in prison.

A pointed six-page letter from the Joint Administrative Procedures Committee, which is tasked with reviewing rules put in place by Florida’s state agencies, follows weeks of concern from families and advocates of those incarcerated about the move to eliminate physical mail.

The questions forced attorneys from the Florida Department of Corrections to request a pause in the 90-day rule-making process to respond to the committee’s many concerns, a move first reported by the Gainesville Sun.

“It is not clear from the language of the rule how any of the proposed amendments contribute to the ‘increased safety and security of inmates and staff,’ ” the letter from JAPC Coordinator Ken Plante said.

While FDC officials said the purpose of the mail change was to improve security, Plante said the proposed rule either needs to make clear how that would happen or the agency needs to cite a different purpose.

The rule had been slated to take effect next week but instead it will remain on hold until the corrections agency appropriately addresses the committee’s concerns, Plante said.

The proposal, which was announced in May, would not only eliminate incarcerated people’s access to physical mail but also extend the time in which officials have to provide someone’s mail.

According to the rule, any routine mail sent to prisoners would be processed and reviewed by a third-party vendor, which would then scan in the content, which people in prison could then view via tablets or shared “kiosks.” Although recipients can reprint a photocopied letter or photo, it comes with a cost: 25 cents per page, or $1 for a page in color, according to the agency’s contract with JPay, Inc., which currently provides the tablets.

At a public hearing in June, FDC Assistant Secretary Richard Comerford said the change improves security by preventing contraband, like drugs and weapons, from coming in through the mail. He said the agency confiscated 35,000 pieces of contraband sent through routine mail in the last two years.

FDC officials have not responded to repeated questions from the Orlando Sentinel about how much mail the agency receives on average.

But in a recent virtual roundtable, state Sen. Jason Pizzo, the Democrat who chairs of the Senate’s criminal justice committee, said each of Florida’s 67 main prison facilities receives about 240 pieces of mail a day, which would mean the prison system receives about 10 million pieces of mail in a two-year span, more than 100 times the contraband mail figure Comerford cited.

Denise Rock, the executive director of prison advocacy group Florida Cares, and many family members and other loved ones of people in prison have vehemently opposed the proposed rule change, arguing it could further isolate incarcerated people and take away one of their best connections to the outside world.

She said she’s hopeful the JAPC’s recent letter could change the course of this proposal.

“We are thankful that we were able to reach them [at JAPC] and be able to have them look more deeply into it,” Rock said. “We’re hopeful that does help the Department of Corrections to pull back from this rule.”

In his letter, Plante stressed a provision of Florida law requiring the FDC to “provide a safe and humane environment for offenders and staff in which rehabilitation is possible.”

“Correspondence received by the committee from the public regarding the proposed changes stress the importance of mail call and the ability of the inmates to physically hold letters and photograph, their only tangible, tactile connection with families and friends,” Plante wrote. “Please explain how the elimination of hard copies of correspondence and photographs under the proposed rule comports with the legislative intent.”

He also questioned how prohibiting people from providing extra stamps or blank cards for someone in prison would increase security, while directing FDC attorneys to make clear how much the change would cost the state, how people leaving prison would access to their digitized correspondence and photographs, and if it will cost them money to do so.

In FDC’s response requesting additional time to “complete its review and any necessary revisions,” assistant general counsel Jason Holman wrote that the agency is “working diligently to address the issues identified” by JAPC.

FDC attorneys already indicated in early July they planned to revise the rule to no longer limit incoming mail to what can fit in a one-stamp envelope, usually no more than five pages. Instead, people in prison would be allowed to receive 15 pages front and back, which is closer to the current mail policy.