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