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Joint letter from Illinois community, legal, and policy organizations to the Illinois Department of Corrections

Dear Director Hughes, We, the undersigned community, legal, and policy organizations, on behalf of our members, are writing to you in light of calls to suspend delivery or electronically scan...

Dear Director Hughes,

We, the undersigned community, legal, and policy organizations, on behalf of our members, are writing to you in light of calls to suspend delivery or electronically scan incoming mail for people who are incarcerated in the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC), to convey our complete opposition to any action that would temporarily or permanently halt the processing and delivery of original, physical mail to people who are incarcerated. 

Ensuring the safety of the people who live and work in IDOC is vital. Restricting the mail or replacing it with mail scanning will not increase their safety. In other states, replacing physical mail with mail scanning did not reduce overdoses or drug use in prisons; in some cases, the rate of overdoses and drug use increased. There is no evidence that suspending or banning the delivery of physical mail to people who are incarcerated provides any institutional safety benefits. 

Letters, cards, drawings, books, and photographs sent in the mail are treasured forms of communication for people who are incarcerated and their loved ones on the outside. Maintaining close relationships with one’s support system during incarceration promotes rehabilitation and improves post-release outcomes, making all of us safer. Mail is essential to maintaining a sense of hope and connection, and restricting it has measurable negative impacts on mental health, behavior, and success when people return home. Digital replications are often low quality and incomplete, and physical letters offer a personal connection that cannot be replaced by digital means.

Medical and toxicology experts have routinely debunked claims that a person can have significant drug exposure or overdose by simply handling something like drug-soaked papers or even powder fentanyl. The risks to staff when handling mail are low, especially with personal protective equipment, and the alleged claims that are circulating about drugs entering prisons through the mail have not been verified. There is no publicly available data or evidence related to how illicit substances enter IDOC facilities. If there is a verifiable substance use problem, the evidence-based way to solve it is to address the root of the problem through comprehensive substance use disorder treatment for people who are impacted by it during their incarceration. 

We urge you not to suspend the delivery of original mail or replace it with mail scanning. Instead, please explore evidence-based solutions that foster safety, rehabilitation, and connection instead of restricting access to this indispensable lifeline. 

Thank you for your consideration of this important issue.

Sincerely,

Access Living

ACLU-Illinois

Alliance for Higher Education in Prison

Art from the Heart

Build Communities Not Prisons

Cabrini Green Legal Aid

Catholic Lawyers Guild

Challenge II Change

Chicago 400 Alliance

Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE)

Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts

Chicago Books to Women in Prison

Chicago Council of Lawyers

Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights

Chicago Torture Justice Center

Chicago Votes

Children and Family Justice Center

Children’s Best Interest Project

Education Justice Project

FAMM

Hinda Institute

Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice, NFP

Illinois Coalition to End Permanent Punishments

Illinois Prison Project

Impact for Equity

Inside Out Network

James B. Moran Center for Youth Advocacy

John Howard Association

Juvenile Justice Initiative

Legacy Reentry Foundation

Legal Council for Health Justice

Liberation Library

Live Free Illinois

Mamas Activating Movements for Abolition & Solidarity (MAMAS)

Metropolitan Family Services

Midwest Books to Prisoners

Mud Theatre Project

National Lawyers Guild – Chicago

Our Brothers’ Keepers of Southern Illinois

Parole Illinois

Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation

Prison Policy Initiative

Restore Justice

Safer Foundation

Saint Leonard’s Ministries

TASC

Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago

Unitarian Universalist Advocacy Network of Illinois

Unitarian Universalist Prison Ministry of Illinois

Uptown People’s Law Center

Walls Turned Sideways