Midwest Prison Censorship Update 2025: Exposing the IDOC Mail Scanning Scam
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![Mail Scamming: IDOC’s Own Data Exposes how Politicians and Guard Unions are Lying about Drugs in the Mail 1493 drug confiscations Mot sent for 15P Tosting: 42% © ISP Negative for Drugs: 23.4% © 157 Positive for Drugs: 34.6% An all-too-familiar playbook: the ‘media parrots press releases from prison staff without any independent Investigation. Was there any evidence of thesé drug exposures? Hospital records or drug test results from the affected officers? Uncritcal journalists and alack of public data enables prison staff to restrict books and mail on dishonest narratives. However, through a FOIA request, we ‘now havé datasets for all drug confiscations within IDOC from 2023- 2024, and all drug exposure incidents within IDOC in 2622, This confiscation data includes the date, facility, description, location found (in mail, in cell, on person), field drug test results, ‘whethef it was Sent to Illifois State. Police for accurate drug testing, and the results of those tests. The exposure data contains date, time, facility, whether it was staff or a prisonef, ‘whether Narcan was used, and whether they went to the hospital. More _ comprehensive statistical analysis is ongoing: we’ve posted the data on our websitefor others to review and are sharing some of our initial findings. 1DOC’s data confirms that Republican politcians and prison giard unions are eliberately misleading the public about these supposed fiospitalizations, inaccurately blaming books and the mail. Out of the total 1493 alleged drug confiscations in a two year period, only 30.1% was ever found in the mail. Only 2 mailroom confiscations of Fentanyl was ever confirmed by ISP testing in this period. Of all the confiscations that ISP confirmed contained drugs, over 90% was synthetic cannabingids or ‘THC/Delta, which cannot produce the overdoses or symptoms officers claim. Even with Fentany], medical experts repeatedly prove how it is impossible foran incidental drug reaction b simple handling oft drug (and i any case mail staff are supposed to use masks and gloves). Their rush to confiscate or reject anything that looks suspicious has drastic consequences for the confined, espectally for those currently fighting cases in court. Out of the 88 pieces of legal mail confiscated, only £0 were confirmed by ISP to have actually contained drugs: that means 48 pieces of Attorney-Client privileged mail was illegally opened, searched, copied, not iver to the recipient who’may have also been discipfined - all based on arbitrary suspicions and defective field tests. Illinois uses the Sirchie Narc Il for ‘presumptive testing’, which has been widely discredited for rampant false positives: regardless, IDOC relies on this initial testing to place people in solitary confinerrent, restricts communication and commissary tights, and affect good time / parole decisions. We’re also thinking of the thousands of books we sent that were rejected for stains’ or ‘unusual discoloration’ that were rejected without any actual drug testing whatsoever. 1DOC works with Illinois State Police’s drug testing facility for actual drug test results: 65.6% of the confiscations ether tested negative by 5B or 1D0C never bothered fo send it for accurate testingall. What was not in the FOIA data was drug test results or medical diagnosis for the fguards who sought hospitalization ierestingly, the vast majorty of ll drug exposure incidents affecting guards occurred aier July 2024 This ata demonstrates that there was little tono correlation between any of these incidents and actual confirmations of drug-laced mail. One such incident at Menard in early September where several guards were](midwest-prison-censorship-update-2025-exposing-the-idoc-mail-scanning-scam-midwest-books-to-prisoners 10.png)
![“We have deployed 14,000 Kioskt atd over oS i Aimilian messages il WevedaRertttol o songs: We have eployed axer 300,000 oo e have felvercd over 1,000,000 llinois’ signed a new contract is with ICSolutions for phone, “ernail”, and tablets: the contract also offers the capability to “scan and digitally delivering the mail to the population”. However, IDOC hasn’t made announcements: *How this functionality will be utilized is still being determined and IDOC is committed to continued dialog withkey stakeholders on thisissue,» says 1D0C spokesperson Naomi Puzzello. We are heating they are having trouble rolling out the new phone and tablets: people are losing access to the old GTL tablet and going Weeks between systems with no working communication. Iesolutions is owned by Advanced Technology Group (ATG) which is owned by Keefe Group and ultimately TKG and HIG Holdings. That the same corporation owns both the Keefe commtissary empire as well as Trinity Services Group - the food contractor for many state prison systems such as Michigan DOC - creates a monopolistic conflict of interest creating the profit inventive to lower genpop food quality to increase commissary sales. HIG holdings also owns notorious Wellpath - privatized healthcare provider for people in prisons such as Pennsylvania DOC - that mited in lawsuits has filed for bankraptey protections in late 2024, The FOIA’d ICSolutions contract contains detailed information on their monitoring capabilities. The ENFORCER™ and The ANALYZER ™ The COMMUNICATOR ™ allows prison staff to “look up physical locations, cross-reference contacts, visual contact networks, track fangaffilations, and fcllates sharing data with other aw énforcement ] intel agencies” Despite the proliferation of prison communication monopolies, some are in hot financial water. SmartCommunication, after scandalous family drama and 86 million in debt, filed for bankrupicy in Dec 2024. Write us for the full story ISR T Sov Dt o s Pris rfr: ‘The Succession Battle For A Prison Empire L o, marion oot oo Conict 04 s i hrs 3 lga war s xpsng et How Activism Brought Securus to the Brink O the ook o ropay 1.3 bion of dobt thisyer, the natorss argost prson tlacom compary 0 bankiuptey s fallre would repracerta usness of g ot fom roners. remarkable vctoryfor dvocates- and 5 potertal Beginning of the end or e ndusty a5 we knom it](midwest-prison-censorship-update-2025-exposing-the-idoc-mail-scanning-scam-midwest-books-to-prisoners 13.png)
![LOCKDOWNS AT FCI THOMSON We attempt the “administrative grievance” process but we get stonewalled and told that the mailroom “know what they’re doing and are following palicy” Hello again from ECI (supposedly) ‘Thomson: high security, low classification. “We run this like a medium because we can!” constantly onlockdown for no known reason facility! Guess what? We’re on lockdown again! We’re told this one ‘will be 2 weeks plus, but not why. The Vs are all npluggéd n the day room S0 we can’t watch the news, we can’t revalidate or change our tablets or MP3 players (which we have to do at minimum overy 2wk o they lock us out), a radio sells for approx. $80 on comimissary (i we were allowed to shop). One other thing, our current meals consist of breaklast: 1 apple, 60z dry cereal (bran flakes), and 1 pint of skim milk. Lunch & Diner: 4 pieces of bread, 1 apple, 1 packet of peanut buttef, 1 slice of lunch meat. So theoretically we are being punished fog something o get this trestment, right? ‘And, oh yeah, Warden Lammers has ecilded that mail is now a privilegel Warden Larmmer’s [unpublished] Insttutional Supplement on Mailand the way the head of the mailroom C/O Foster has chosen how to administer and interpret it. My cellie was nice enough to print ouit a copy so I could send 1t to you to help explain what is going on: - The local procedures directly violate Program Statement 5265.14 and a couple laws ‘There should not be a price tag on our life’ | USP Thomson staff union renews calls for new mailroom screening protections + No directives are actually referenced in this supplement - A second paragraph this violates free speech and it was decided in the 705 that mail is a right not a privilege - They are no longer notifying inmates of regulations so we don’t know unless someone tells us A5 e national policy only the Warden can reject mail and for very specific reasons SIS should not be involved in he process at all Implementation: f it’s not a book, ‘magazine, newspaper, of catalog, it gets cople 1’s more than s pges, You’stifl only get 5 pages. I had Something come in from the FBOP regional office out of Kansas City and they copied that too! This prison decided that despite national policy there is no difference between personal ‘mail and mail from a business. Newsletters are hit and miss, catalogs are thrown away 9 times out’of 10 because they don’t have ‘FCI Thomson” on the address or have a mailing label on them. We hear back from ot families that they are getting ‘mail back unopened and books sent back to Amazon without anyone being fold why. Then of course there re the books that just vanish. People will go down to the mailroom with the tracking i and mallroom staf il ell them; the tracking # doesn’t exist (it does).Just becausé it shows that the books got to the local post office it doesn’f mean they ever got here (our post office must be the worst in the US i they "lose” as much mail as this place says they do). Our mailroom is understaffed So it could be 2-4 weeks il they process our books, or our favorite “Tdon’ tknow, write an email” 17 officers taken to hospital after being exposed to ‘unknown substance’ at federal prison ru |](midwest-prison-censorship-update-2025-exposing-the-idoc-mail-scanning-scam-midwest-books-to-prisoners 14.png)
![HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS InApril 2025, we AT FCI THOMSON! heatd from miultiple peopieatret T e omson aboutthe [ [ oo s peredcomntyntens, bogus lockdowns and the suspension of all mail. circulated their prepared statement h initiateda l0ne zap targeting e Warden and the BOP Regional Office: within days they came off fockdown and mail was being delivered again. AFGE 4070 “union” boss Jon Zumkehr (pictured here meeting with Eric Sorensen D-Rockford) has been spreading disinformation through these “blue flu” fake overdoses at least six times over the past few years to an effort o deprive the rights of peaple incarcerated at ECi Thomson and promote federal legislation which would ban physical mail in favor of third party digitization corporations. The proposed law [LI 1046 “Mare Fischer Memorial Interdiction of Fentany! in Postal Mail at Federal Prisons Act” was named after the mailroom guard who supposedly died {rom contraband- infused mail, but according (0 the autopsy and the overnment’s own filings, Marc Fischer “died of natural causes from a eart attack” There is o évidence o support any of thealleged mailzoom overdoses anywhere or that banning physical maifor increased lockdowns would stop the availabilify of drugs behind bars, Despite 5 years of mail scanning ] to keep drugs from Pa. prisons, Overdoses Rise in Missouri Prisons ‘problems remain Despite Strict New Mail Policy Studies show that state prisons that use mail digitization services have NOT reduced overdoses or availability of drugs](midwest-prison-censorship-update-2025-exposing-the-idoc-mail-scanning-scam-midwest-books-to-prisoners 17.png)
![The Censorship of Ideas is a Form of Psychological Warfare: A Message from the Diversionary Treatment Unit ANARGHISM RADICAL TRADITION R¢oop) INMY Eye ) crone 1 RoN By Hybachi LeMar In’The Palestinian Prisoner’s Movement: A History, it’s written that "the primacy of the liberation of prisoners as a collective goal of the Palestinian resistance is also emergent from the unity of imprisonment as a place of militant development, training, and socialization". It teaches of the universality of imprisonment as a weapon of warfare, and occupation, and that whenever there is occupation, there is rebellion, and that even the most brutal forms of imprisonment can emselves become schools of revolt In "Black Anarchism and the Black Radical Tradition", Atcicys Baghy-Williams and Nsambu 22 Suekama articulates that "black anarchist politics reside within a cultural oral tradition"" Letters from jail and from exiled revolutionaries and self-published literature in the form of zines, primarily because many initial black anarchist intellectuals emerge from prison struggles. Brother Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin points out that these naterials ae weapons against fascism, literacy) el hatred, and lack of self-ésteem. Printing and shating these ideas revolutionary enough to subvert these interlockin oppréssions are an essentlal means of ur psychological self-defense. Defense against kick-backs, coverups; of mice that eat through ramen noodle packets, of chipped-walls, peeling ceilings, roaches, no cell windaws or air conditiohing; slave Iabor, periodic denials of suicides. We’re in a violation of freedom of press: it takes maneuvering under radar, under the censors, ideoiogical - [this is a call from Pennsylvania State Correctional [nstitution Huntingdon. This call is Subject to recording and monitoring] Nota single lifer I spoke with where I’m confined was aware of the 2016 nor 2011 country-wide prison strike: a political form of protest - largely due o targeted newspapers denied to them by mailroom officials. What helped me got through whilen the hole?Self. discipline, meditation, and the application of knowledge. A healthy vibe of: do pushups and study. Do sit ups and study. Do dip off the side of the toilet and recall what I’ve learned while pacing the cell. Robin D.G. Kelly acknowledged the way Robert F. Williams insisted that "all young black activists undergo personal and moral transformation’” It was a familiar lesson embodied in the lives of Malcolm X & later George Jackson, the idea that one possesses the reyglutionary wil o transform one’s self.](midwest-prison-censorship-update-2025-exposing-the-idoc-mail-scanning-scam-midwest-books-to-prisoners 24.png)
![truthout Communication Crackdown in Federal Prisons Has Been Operating Quietly Until Now ilja J.A. Talvi, Truthout ed June, 2024 By i Pubish “The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has quietly but steadily been implementing a nationwide policy that silences the voices of people incarcerated in federal prisons by MU LA DEFENSA A P L preventing them from sharing the same email and phone contacts for people on the outside, also known as a “double contact ban.” The policy, which gives prison authorities wide leeway to censor communications, appears o have gone through an intenSive test run for thie past toyears at a Minnesota women’s federal prison, FCI Waseca, where roughly 900 incarcerated people recelved a written warning from the warden on March 13, 2024 ‘The notice sent to prisoners’ emails could neither be printed nor forwarded. Truthout was able to obtain a capy of the policy, which reads in part: FCIWaseca Inmate Bulletin: “Recently, a review by SIS [the Special Investigative Services] was condiicted on inmates” email and phone accounts at FCI Waseca ‘and it was discovered inmates are actively sharing emails, addresses and phone ‘numbers with other inmates housed at FCILand within the Bureau of Prisons, With the exception of approved inmate to inmate correspondencé, egal correspondence,advoccey groups and educational informationthe sharing of email addresses and phone numbers pose asafety and security Concern for the Bureai of Prisons and FCI Waseca.” California prison system considering mail digitization Dozens of organizations published a letter demanding the protection of physical mailfor people incarcerated in alifornia: Dear California Budget and Corrections Leaders, We are writing to raise serious concerns regarding the possible implementation of digital mail scanning across California state prisons through the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s newly executed contract with Securus Technologes 25](midwest-prison-censorship-update-2025-exposing-the-idoc-mail-scanning-scam-midwest-books-to-prisoners 27.png)
![Has access to the law library at urpresent acilitychanged i&m’mng the pandemic? If yes, ow? “"Yes, The number of allowed to others at a. time has been lowered, and only allowed to attend 1 day a week. " - Plainfield CF, Indiana “Gotten worse. We had no access during the ‘pandemic. Now it is hard because staff Hortage or not doing their jobs." - Marlor, Tlinois™ e “During he pandemic we had no acees and RS v o R e o d I 0 o o s oand bope e Does the facility allow you to bring books and other literature to the yard? Are bool u allowed to share or literature? rsticiang T Faiield & indiona "Booksto yard, no Yes, we can share “We cannot bing them to theyard. At Menarc ] was thcatencd with ST ticket Fincknegule, Hinors ot allowed to share anything, big rule. No owed North iloreiate Famentary “They don’tallowit,but you know how e “Can brin to yard however we cannot share boaks besguse unmauthorized sansfer of B i possessions.~Taycheedan, Wisconsin® yeheedal, do you feel about the options forreading material available services on it? What services do they offer? "o, To share books s considered books "~ Big Muddy Rver CC 1 Tor Bifging RPC baoks o the yard. - loaning and borrowing get dowm. - Wabash ValldyCF, I8 Droperty" aind they throw fhem ot 1f found Do you use a tablet? If so, how on it What m%flm’es provide Thereading materialsarevery retricted. he oyt Edows The servcsoffred Eadio for recreationl. Thére s alsoa phone et ks~ ook count ] Music, movl, podcas, and garming apps it ke enagmgf}nm%s tha Westulle CF, ndiina P "The options for eading material on ur tableols Gurdsted The Gblet omy g Bk thatste pubic domain. piout o the Dok oAb Bk Minericans e egtoor Coloted They company hat providesservice ot ablet o R 3l e 3 Ch pare i Al e 2T R "They have no reading material on ther. Only Fames, Music, A TOViEs (o ent: Tablet 15500, Garmes $3-3 - Son 0wt 3 each Movies about S4:00 andean eeh sncar: YA Tt 38](midwest-prison-censorship-update-2025-exposing-the-idoc-mail-scanning-scam-midwest-books-to-prisoners 40.png)
![WIDOC uses Access Tablts (T v SCORE, R R LRl Bloress mbeny Brec sty Ther are o e ‘mostly from the ate 18005 and early 10008 R yem s ey andstet i and dosens PRaReR B B e LR S e and et Fdoca Sotony S now TS o e oo oot P bk S B T opely Mt s rotedtes.Other bans ai eveh more baftling. Since.l can still R downloaded, I’ll list them. [...] There’s a oAt ahot 2 podcecsall PRUCLAPRD b2 dozenpodeat sibsripton, S montd L st About 3 e e ol ecdblc B o B oSty el AR enc ‘new gares, "Arch Knight’ and "Budding. et et th oo Dugs e e M ot s Pt e Amor LA P SR POy for pemologieal imteeste hich giard and in the other you clear pison B v by ceman: arstare e e oL vl Tantasy land. Reep n mind this i the same e Hhenc o0 By 3 Chld o oo T S U pepic foueier ot r sy sworan B Yo k) Eroose o mharer B b oot s o el peyihet e LB T recently ncreased the price of “ e bters o 82 o picing seems el fo.3, e LIRSS R T i maon et 25 Ao e remtos onty k45 o RSP S SR, e B oneeal e wiy thcough. Thert’s e B an L o ey e, and s o [ et R hfi% St m‘éy\?f%’ Eminated Zmounts of ext. The tablet vendor contract isup soon and everyone (ncluding OC staf s farly sure Acccss willose the o a3 L ey by facyae Somictin 2oal Iis siywhy eyl et b oxherstes eep S wndor i vl e X;ndn%la%es the contract), have S Peked U fie B rental prices They e Shey Lot ose the comisac 00 o e i S S Has your outgaing mail ever been censored? If you are a writer or artist, ave restrictions on outgoing mail ever made it difficult to publish o self-publish your Writing or creative worl "Yes, it took me 14 years to self publish my book! - Western finors T Y "Yes, 1am always concerned about my mail ot g 1 detinaton o being Eampered with." - Cook County Ja, inois ““Pim writing my 7 chapter of my book, but ey L e maleotios 31 Send outh* Gook County Jai, inos Lastly, is there anything you think e on the outside or the general public need to know about censorship, reading, books, education, or your life inside? Feel free fo write as much as you want. We will read and value every word. "I think there i a ot that I could say about this place that would shock and repiise s placetht would shock and epul ‘eople i they even believed it. There is so Phuth evil i here and the corruption is grear, but there are good people that work ere and there are good men and women tTapped in herc. Wé are human bengs, ot Jemons. The world cast us out and ighores](midwest-prison-censorship-update-2025-exposing-the-idoc-mail-scanning-scam-midwest-books-to-prisoners 41.png)
2025
~“MIDWEST
PRISON
CENSORS
UPDATE:
Exposmg thel
Scanmng Scam
“There is a gulf between the image and the redlity of
the punishment bureaucracy. Copaganda creates that
qulf It the system of government and news media
propaganda that promotes mass incarceration,
Justifies the barbarities and profits that accompany it,
and distorts our sense of what threatens us and what
keeps us safe”. - Alec Karakatsanis, “Copaganda”
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Stop Mail Scanning in Illinois
8 Mail Scamming: IDOC FOIA’d
Confiscation and Exposure Data
12 Lockdowns at FCI Thomson
22 The Censorship of Ideas is a
Form of Psychological Warfare
32 Prison Censorship Survey
N
Midwest Books to Prisoners
1%‘21 N Milwaukee Ave PMB 460
Chicago, IL 60622
hitps://midwestbookstoprisoners.org
lnsmai;ram: @MidwestBooks2p
Email: midwestb2p@gmail.com
‘Midwest Books to Prisoners shares reading materials with
cople behind bars free of charge, We Hght to undermine the
ot aceess o communcatio and eaficaton whie -
amplifying voices the system silences by helping people self~
PUBIISH el works 36 2ines. We host open meeHips fwice a
Rieekto answer letters and pack books. Get involved!
Prison censorship is a front in the fascist american project. For the
millions buried by the largest prison system on the planet, we know
that access to communication and reading materials remain one of
the only ways people behind bars can maintain humanity. Prison is
censorship, a system of walls and borders that criminalizes people
and ideas: 4 system we are determined to break by building bridges of
Solidarity - through sharing books and publishing zines.
Coinciding with the fascistic expansion of police and cop city
projects, the prison censorship machine Ias apidly marched on,
consyming the majority o loal, state and federal aciiies Played-
out “war on drugs” fear mongering s nhy most people behind bars
1o longer receive physical mail: books are banned under cover of
“icontent-neutral” and “publisher-only” restrictions, and private
monopolies experiment with dystopian tablet technologies to
monitor and profit from all communications.
Illinois has been one of the last holdouts until last year when prison
copagandists began another all-too-familiar disinformation
campaign. Guards are staging drug exposure hospitalization stunts to
take away physical mail - Incidents easily disproved as impossible by
medical experts and according to IDOC’s own confiscation and
exposure data. Unlike other states, this battle is being waged at
capitol: multple bills for and agairst mall scanning are being
debated in Springfield. IDOC has not made any announcemerits yet,
buthas signed a fiew phone/email tablet contract with ICSolutions!
Tllinois could fall to all-digital mail unless we organize now to stop i.
One voice that has not been heard from are those behind bars who are
bearing the brunt of their draconian machinations. We made sure to
share their plans to thousands of our incarcerated correspondents
throughout IDOC, asking for comments and strategies on how to
fight back and providing information on the bills and the addresses
towrite congress, Throughout these pages you'li hear directly how
mail censorship affects life behind bars: and special appreciations to
the brave souls writing us, refusing to be silenced.
‘We are determined to stop mail scanning and book bans in llinois
we share these tools and updates, seeking comrades to help break
down the panopticon through underground networks of paper and
print. Free the books, free the mai, freé the people - free them all!
By Anthony Ehlers
In the spring, the Illinois House is set to take up a bill aimed at turning all
risons in the State of Illinois Paperless. This is all coming from
epublican Legislators and AFSCME, the correctional officers union.
These new rulés will ban all mail from private individuals until it is
digitized; it will also ban books and newspapers.
‘Why would they do this? Ostensibly, they will tell you that it is necessan
in the name of public safety: keéping IDOC and its employees an
residents safe.
Qne of the things that happened in the wake of legalizing marijuana is
that a lot of synthetic cannabinoid products are being produced: This is
part ‘of the cannabis market that is largely unregulated. One of the
products that has come forward is called’Kz. It is a synthetic form of
camnabinoid that wiltill getyou highwithout the form of THC n regular
marijuana. K2 is widely sold in gas Stations among other places. K2 gets
sprayed on paper and these pieces,of paper are either caten or smoked
and that's how prisoners get high. They cut them into small pieces called
“strips”. This Is part of the excuse that AFSCME and the Republican
Legislators use for wanting to implement the Paperless prison system.
The other reason that is put forth is that it is needed for the safety of
correctional officers who handle the mail. There have been numerous
reports in local and nationwide media about officers in mailrooms in
prisons throughout the couniry who have been made sck or died due fo
rug soaked paper and things like that, There was one here in the State of
Illinois that made the news at a downstate prison called Shawnee
Correctional Center, Six correctional officers and two prisoners
Sexperienced medical symptoms” while sorting mai, The prison was put
on lockdown: mailrooms across the state were alerted, and all mail in that
prison was temporarily stopped.
This sounds like 2 reasonable response, ight? However, the Hazardous
Material team that responded to the prison found no drugs on any paper,
not on the clothes of the officers. There is no evidence of any drugs of
contraband being found causing a medical emergency.
They use generic terms like what was reported on WSIL TV about an
incident in'Menard Correctional Center in September of 2024, Part of the
report says “One staff from the mailroom started exhibiting symptoms”,
it goes on: “Another employee exhibited symptoms and was taken to thé
hospital”. Exhibiting sympfoms? Symptorns of what? The report goes on
to say that “All impacted staff were treated and released”. You know what
that means? It means they were politely told ‘nothing is wrong with you,
youcan go'.
It was reported in “The Southern” that in August of 2024 “two officers
had an elevated heart rate and dizziness after having responded o an
inmate medical situation where possible overdose was suspected”. An
clevated heart rate and dizziness after responding to an emergency
medical situation? That seems like a normal reaction to me. They are
instead trying to tie it ©0 a possible drug contamination without any
evidence atall,
They use these generic terms like “exhibiting symptoms” and trying to
tie every situation to drugs in order to further their narrative. The Sad
truth is they treat every medical emergency like a drug overdose no
matter who it
InJune of 2024 at Stateville Correctional Center, my friend who lived next
door to me named Michael Broadway, had such a medical emergency. 1t
took 20 minutes for the nurse to show up to his cell. When she gt there,
all she wanted to do was hit him with Narcan. When the first ohe didn’t
work, she hit him again. The IDOC said Michael died of a drug overdose,
however, the autopsy showed that he died of an Asthina. attack
exacerbated by extreme heat. His family is now suing IDOC.
Nowhere in the State of Illinois has there been an incident of a corrections
worker being made siclof dying of any drg soaked paper Even holding,
or touching the deadly drug Fentanyl will not result in overdosing of
being made sick. Touching of holding the drug does not harm you. It is a
narrative that AFSCME keéps pushing, but it siimply isn’t true.
These synthetic drugs aren’t as dangerous as they are being made out to
be. How do I know? For the last 23 years I was in Stateville Correctional
Center before it closed in October. Strips, as they were called, had
permeated the prison. Some guy did get caught, and they were punished.
But mostly, prison staff didri’t seem to care much. Many guys smoked
these drugs; you could smell the smoke in the air all the time
‘This wasn’t a problem the prison cared to address. Prisons are mostly
concerned with prisoner violence, either violence towards each other or
violence towards staff. As long as'guys weren’t doing those things, they
didn’t care if prisoners smoked therselves into oblivion. 1 don’t smdke or
get high, but I was always around it, and was forced to breathe in
Secondhand smoke in_these encloséd spaces. 1 never “exhibited
symptoms”, whatever that means, and neither did any of the countless
other prisofiers who were around it, or who did it, nor did any of the
correctional officers who were around it.
prison guards with AFSCME picketing in corn felds demanding an end to physical mail
e Southern lllinois Lawmakers Urge
SUNPPRRPSPR |10 to Temporarily Stop Mailat
e Deoutrs iiertans s priser o Correctional Facilities
Going paperless is costly, and simply does not work. In 2020, the
Wiscansin Depattment of Corrections began sending allprisoner mail to
acompany called TextBehind in Maryland that scans the mail and sends a
digital copy to prisoners. This costs the Wisconsin Department of
Corrections over $1million a year. Doing this for IDOC will needlessly cost
taxpayers millions of dollars.
There is evidence as well to show that going paperless does not work.
\isconsinWatch org reported that in the veat 201 the year Wisconsin
Degan restricting mail, there were 49 incidents of drugs being found on
paper. Thus far i 2024, there have been 55 incidents. X Marsiall Project
Investigation from 2021 found that restricting mail did not curb drugs
found In Texas prisons. The Patriot News reported last year that aftér
banning physical mail in 2018, the number of Pennsylvania prisoners who
tested positive on random drug tests substantially increased.
Do vouwant to know why golng paperless and restricting mail docsr't
work? Because most drugs ate brought into the prison by the people who
work here. In Stateville, staff were routinely walked out and fired for
bringing in drugs, selling cell phones, or having sex with prisoners.
In Cook County Jail last January, a nurse was arrested for bringing in drug
soaked paper to her prisoner boyfriend. In March, a CCJ commissary
worker with a private company was arrested trying t6 smuggle in drugs.
In 2023 in Wisconsin, prosecutors charged nine Waupun prison workers,
including a former warden, in a federally investigated staff smuggling
ring. I can tell you from expérience that many staff members in Stateville,
botfi correctional officers and other staff, have been caught smuggling
things into the prison.
Makeng mistake, his paperless agenda will afect more than a pisoner’s
ersonal letters. it will also stop prisoners from being able to purchase
ooks ox magazines, even newspapers. I00C has already severely curtalled
ourablity 'get bodks Everyone knows that buying used boole s cheaper
than buying new books. However, IDOC has employéd a policy that will not
allow in any books with highlighted passages, underlined sentences, or
stains of any kind. This seriously limits your ‘ability to get used books,
forcing you (or your family) to spend money on new books. Sadly, not
everyone can afford to purchase hew books. The drugs they claim io be
tryinig to stop aren’t highlighted or underlined, so thes? restrictions make
little Sense other than trying to stop books frorh coming in at all.
Books are a huge part of the prison culture: good books, both fiction and
non-fiction, aré passed around. You whittle away the hours in a place like
4
this, and many men do that by reading. Once I set my mind to try to
becdrne a beiter person, | read anything and everything | could get my
hands on. Reading books helped me to get on a better path: they helpe
me grow and become self-rehabilitated. Some books are so valuable in
prison, I've seen them used as currency. That’s how valuable books can be
Inaplace like this, and they are trying to take that away.
Some men in this place also write books. I myself have been writing a
book. Other men, like my friend Michael Broadway who died, are alreat)
ublished authors. He wrote and self-published a semi-autobiographical
o0k about growing up in Chicago called “One Foot In”. Other ghys have
published poetry books or memoirs. This bill would stop all of that. You
would stop incarcerated men and women from becoming better people.
Worse yet, you would stop them from expressing themselves;
This willalso hugely Impact education and learning in prison. ID0C does
not have any higher learning or a degree bearing éducation. Many men
take correspondence courses such as Blackstone Career Insitute which
upon completion certifies men and women as paralegals anywhere in the
country. There are also various colleges ‘and Universities across the
country. that offer correspondence courses like Adams State or the
University of Colorado at Pueblo. If this bill passes, none of these things
will be available to the men and women in IDOC anymore.
1t s not just limited to correspondence courses either, There are higher
education programs scattered across the state like the Northwesfern
Prison Education Program (NPEP), or Lewis University. These programs
largely rely on paper printed articles instead of books. NPEP is Iargely
funded by donations and grants: it would cost thousands of dollars to pa
for course books for everyone. Many of the course materials are printed.
This would also stop. The guys in these programs would not be able to do
their coursework. 1t would have the effect of shutting down higher
education in prison. Is that really in the interest of public safety?
We have been able to purchase tablets through a company called Global
Tel-Link (GTL). The tablets have apps for Music, news and podcasts,
which you have to pay a subscription or. It also has emails which you also
P2y 0, and ebooks which are free The reason that the baok app is frée s
Caulse they are all public domain materials which are older than 70 years.
That means any science of any kind is old and no longer applies. There is
no recent history, no self-help books, or anything thaf is contemporary.
You know what the tablet does not have? It does not have the ability to
hold any writing whatsoever, other than a 2000 character email. You
cannot write letters, poems, songs, or books. You cannot write your
school papers or your own legal motions. It doesn’t even spellcheck. Nor
can it hold pictures or drawings that small chidren do for their parents
You cannot create art on it. 1f this bill passes, you cannot even use paper
to draw or paint.
Moira Marquis of PEN America said “If you are going to limit somebody’s
First Amendment rights excessively, you really should have a very strong
burden of proof that not only is this hiecessary, but also effective.” This IS
neither necessary nor effective: this is IDOC blaming families and the
people they incarcerate for the problems their stalf can't or won't
address.
s
Restore Justice at the Capitol campaigning with legislators to
protect physical mail as well as youth seniencing reforms
House Bill 3713 introduced by Rep. Laura Faver Dias would require prisoners
receive the physical, original mail, that communication cannot be resiricted for
disciplinary reasons, require emails and calls to be free of charge, and require
that [DOC collect comprehensive data on all drug confiscations.
Winois Senate Republican Terri By,
aformer 20 year IDOC guard, s leading
the disinformation charge,
performatively surprise Visiting prisons
&nd introducing legislation derianding
an end to physical tail. Her proposed
SBI641 requires 100% scanning
capacity” within “one year”. Hotse GOP
David Friess, Tony McCombie and
Patrick Windhorst also proposed a
second law HB5893 which also requires
all mail to be scantied and delivered on
tablets or kiosks, but this bill never
passed during the last session. State Senator Jason Plummer and Terri
Bryant demanded Latoya Hughes step
down as IDOC Director, grilling her
f during her confirmation hearirig: “Are
We going to have a system in place -
. Toys cconss MGl SCNNING oF Whatever - 10 stop the
2 synthetics that are flooding ou faciliies,
2 - ‘harming our correctional staff, and_
renmiwonas haFMINg oUr inmates a the fatility?”
5 Latoya Hughes responded vaguely
“iWe’re in conversations with otir union
partners related specifically to your
err Bryant i lso asking guards to break _ Question, related to mail and mal
Sanctuaty state policy and BEport scanning. We are working with them on
undoctmented people as they end theix comprehensive approach”
IDOC sentence: UStaff are prohibited from
notifying or cooperating with ICE 50 no
way for TCE (o khow the offender is
incarcerated, . If you are IDOC staf who
wants ICE o kow of an illegal immigrant
inDOC, call or message me'". 1 won't rat
you out T will oty ICE”
Dear IDOC Director Hughes,
We, the undersigned community, legal, nd policy organizations,on behalf of qur
‘metabers, are WAARE to you In NEAFof cals o suspeRd delavery or clecronically scan
ncoming mail for people aho aré incarcerated n e lnois Department of Corections
{(ibO0), b comvey fur Corplete oppastion to any acton that would temporariy or
permaneniy "hall the pracessing ahd delvery of briginal, pRysical mail 1 people who are
Tneatcerate
Ensuring the safety of the people who live and work in IDOC s vital. Restricting the mail or
Keplacing it with mail scanning will not ncrase their safety. I other states, Feplacing
Bl i e d ol T o\Graoses b drog e I prsore 1 ome
Easen e ate of verdoses and drug e inrcssed Ther s no cvidence fha suspending
o baining the delivery of physical Fai to peopie who are incarcerated provides an
fnstiutionsl satery benehts. pecr " v
Letters, cards, drawings, books, and photographs sent in the mail are treasured forms of
communication for peaple who are incarcerated and their loved ores on the otside.
‘Maintaining close Felationships with One's SUpport system dUring incarceration promotes
rehabiltation and Hmproves post- release outomes, MaKIng all of us Safer. Mail s essential
£ maintaining a sense of hope and connection, and restricting it has measurable negaive
impacts on mental health, behavior, and success when people return home. Digital
replicatons e often ow qualtyand ncomplete,and physica etersoffr personal
connection that cannof be feplaced by digital means.
‘Medical and toxicology experts have routinely debunked claims that a person can have
significant drug exposure or overdose by simply andling something ke drug-soaked
pahersoreven boulerfentamyf ke o Kt when Randing il ae o xpecially
with personal protective equipment, and the alleged claims that are circulating about drugs
entering prisons through the mail have not been verified. There i no publicly available
Gata or Evidence related to how liclt Substances enter IDOC facilties i theré i 3 verifiable
Substance use problem, the evidence-based way fo Solve it is to address the root of the
‘problem through comprehensive substance use disorder treatment for peaple who are
Fmpacted by it during feir incarceration.
e e el e el o o i
Thank you for your consideration of this important issue.
AccessLiing ChiresBestnerestPrject— Midest Books o Prisoners
A ot Edhcationustice e i Theabe et
Ailaceor HigherEducaton i EAHA NatonaLovgerk G - Chicago
i Hinda nstue i roers Kepersof et
o the o iAo o ot
g Comanies ot oenoy and ishce v Bore ot
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it e e it Hiojo
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oo CouncoLmers et Cound o e hice Networko Mo
Ghicago LawyersComhtc o vl Lifeaton vy Unirian nerat rison
e et o sy or s
Cilcago Torure ustceCeter o Activating Movementsfor Uptown Pople's Lw Cnter
Ghicadvotes liion & Soldary (WANAS ol Trned Sdeways
Chiden and Famly usticeCenter Metropotitan Family Sevices
165 not oo latetowritethe IDOC director or the Governor!
LatoaHaghes,Disecto, DOC Govarr 18 Prsar GhesgnOfc b G
i CincordlaCourt Sogiar O o ho Govamor <55 W o 8. 6 e
B oo e S e
Springfa, 1L 62701 Sorogtaly szt FroneiHE S22, M2s1e21z2
v oehesaiTnsicgty R el ek g oz e
Mail Scamming: IDOC’s Own Data
Exposes how Politicians and Guard
Unions are Lying about Drugs in the Mail
1493 drug confiscations
Mot sent for 15P
Tosting: 42%
© ISP Negative for
Drugs: 23.4%
© 157 Positive for
Drugs: 34.6%
An all-too-familiar playbook: the
‘media parrots press releases from
prison staff without any independent
Investigation. Was there any evidence
of thesé drug exposures? Hospital
records or drug test results from the
affected officers? Uncritcal journalists
and alack of public data enables prison
staff to restrict books and mail on
dishonest narratives.
However, through a FOIA request, we
‘now havé datasets for all drug
confiscations within IDOC from 2023-
2024, and all drug exposure incidents
within IDOC in 2622, This confiscation
data includes the date, facility,
description, location found (in mail, in
cell, on person), field drug test results,
‘whethef it was Sent to Illifois State.
Police for accurate drug testing, and
the results of those tests. The exposure
data contains date, time, facility,
whether it was staff or a prisonef,
‘whether Narcan was used, and whether
they went to the hospital. More _
comprehensive statistical analysis is
ongoing: we've posted the data on our
websitefor others to review and are
sharing some of our initial findings.
1DOC’s data confirms that Republican
politcians and prison giard unions are
eliberately misleading the public
about these supposed fiospitalizations,
inaccurately blaming books and the
mail.
Out of the total 1493 alleged drug
confiscations in a two year period, only
30.1% was ever found in the mail. Only
2 mailroom confiscations of Fentanyl
was ever confirmed by ISP testing in
this period. Of all the confiscations that
ISP confirmed contained drugs, over
90% was synthetic cannabingids or
‘THC/Delta, which cannot produce the
overdoses or symptoms officers claim.
Even with Fentany], medical experts
repeatedly prove how it is impossible
foran incidental drug reaction b
simple handling oft drug (and i any
case mail staff are supposed to use
masks and gloves).
Their rush to confiscate or reject
anything that looks suspicious has
drastic consequences for the confined,
espectally for those currently fighting
cases in court. Out of the 88 pieces of
legal mail confiscated, only £0 were
confirmed by ISP to have actually
contained drugs: that means 48 pieces
of Attorney-Client privileged mail was
illegally opened, searched, copied, not
iver to the recipient who'may have
also been discipfined - all based on
arbitrary suspicions and defective field
tests.
Illinois uses the Sirchie Narc Il for
‘presumptive testing’, which has been
widely discredited for rampant false
positives: regardless, IDOC relies on
this initial testing to place people in
solitary confinerrent, restricts
communication and commissary
tights, and affect good time / parole
decisions. We're also thinking of the
thousands of books we sent that were
rejected for stains’ or ‘unusual
discoloration’ that were rejected
without any actual drug testing
whatsoever.
1DOC works with Illinois State Police’s
drug testing facility for actual drug test
results: 65.6% of the confiscations
ether tested negative by 5B or 1D0C
never bothered fo send it for accurate
testingall.
What was not in the FOIA data was drug
test results or medical diagnosis for the
fguards who sought hospitalization
ierestingly, the vast majorty of ll
drug exposure incidents affecting
guards occurred aier July 2024 This
ata demonstrates that there was little
tono correlation between any of these
incidents and actual confirmations of
drug-laced mail.
One such incident at Menard in early
September where several guards were
Location Confiscated
© Incom: a7.0%
© mait: 30.1%
© on Person 19.4%
® other: 2.7%
Of the 444 Confiscated in Mail
Mot sent for 1sP
Testing: 32%
Of the 509 ISP Confirmed
e foan{lgs
synthetic
Cannabinolds:
sa.7%
© THCDelta: 8.2%
© Fentanyt: 0.2%
© Motn: 0.2%
@ rcri02%
® Codeine: < 0.1%
© Morphine: <0.1% - Cocaine: < 0.1%
allegedly hospitalized had state
Senators Terri Bryant and Dan Fowler
calling for an immediate suspension of
all physical mail until they implement a
scanning system. Read this ridiculous
timeline of events out of a scifi novel:
Monday, /o, one staffmember from the
e i
pening mail and was ransporid to an
Oliside hosptalvia ambulahce. The remaining
Staffin he mailroom were thesrelocated o
ity S warchouse Wile in the
warkhouse, another mairoom employee.
xhibited sympfoms and was ranspolted to
Sitside hospHalong ambulance Subsequenly.
(o other stff members, who were ot n
oo, it came i conactwih (e 1t
Symploms and were aker tothe ouside
Rl ambtanc Lte, (e lhoom
Sl membel reportedfecing i nd was
alpared o chawislc hospcivia e
Location of 153 Staff Exposures
Big Muday miver:
5%
© Dixon: 3.3%
o 1.3%
© 1L River: 5.2%
Lawrence: 7.8%
® Logan: 2%
© Monare: 29.4%
Pinckneyvile:
(e
® Pontiac: 1.7%
© Roblnson: 1.3%
© Shawnee: 4.6%
@ statevite: 1.3%
© Vienna: 8.5%
© Wostorn: 6%
Confiscations by Institution
Big Muday: 3.3%
© Contralia: 2.1%
© Danvitle: 1.5%
© . Moline: 6.3%
Graham: 2.4%
@ n.0%
® 1L River: 3.6%
© Jcksonvie: 1.7%
Prckneyvile:3.4% @ Jollet TC: 0.5%
© Pontiac: 1% Lawrence: 2.3%
© Rovinsom 2.3% © Statevie: %
© Shawnews 4% @ Vandala: 0%
Western: 15.1%
Lincotm: 0.1%
© Logan: 0.4%
© Menare: 27%
vehicle Another mairoom stalf member was
ke th hospial by s veRElE wihoot
St oty by e A
obcted dafPwere ested and releoséd.
ey e et e
linois Nafiomal Guard, were on-sie 10 assist
Wil tsting hems of cincer: o che oo,
e s ton o he econt cvoms o
However, according to their own data,
there was no drug confiscation in the
mailroomat Menard on o/o/2024 Al
week they put people on lockdown and
sent search teams tearing up cells
looking for scraps of paper. So many of
these plague scare lockdowns, the data
shows no Tesults - just cops faking it.
Police and politicians are lying to
justify harsh and unnecessary
grestrictions on the basic human right to
W [llinois guards use Sirchie’s Nark I field tests - so notoriously
inaccurate that multiple states have ordered DOC to stop using
them. A class action lawsuit against Massachusetts DOC “less
accurate than witchcrgft, phiehology, or simply picking a nuber
out of a hat” creating “false positives nearly 80% of the time”"
Nonetheless: many states including Illinois continue to use Narc It
for “presumptive festing” that commonly results in loss of good
time, being put in solitafy confinement, have communication
rights restricted, and impact parole board decisions.
Less Accurate than Witchcraft’: Class Action Claims Mass. DOC
Uses Faulty Drug Tests on Legal Inmate Mail
The 29- page complaintcharges thatthe Mass. DOC uses the Narcotis Reagent
Analysis Kit (NARK) II-brand tests, which are made and sold by defendants
Sirchiie Acquisition Company, LLC 4nd Premier Biotech and designed to detect
synthetic cannabinoids, to test for drugs sprayed on paper. The case scathes that
although these tests ar “lossgecurate thah witcheraft, pzenclogy,or Simply
picking anumber out of a hat,” and create false positives “almost 80% of the
time, according to one DOC official's estimate,” they produce very real
consequences for proposed class members.” - ClassAction.org on Green et al.v.
Massachusetts Department of Correction et al. (NARK I1 lawstit in
Massachusetts attesting to false positives 2021)
“They further claim that the inadequacy of the training materials Sirchie
provided to the DOC all but ensured that DOC employecs would underestimate
the product's flaws, misinterpret preliminary results, and make decisions
adverse to inmates based on false positives” & “DOC employees allegedly
attempted to dissuade him from pursuing confirmatory testing during that time.
Two months later, confirmatory resting Showed that the preliminary result had
beena false positive. When Mr. Green finally received the tested mail, it was too
damaged to read.” - Excerpt {rom the Opinion and Order in Green et 4l v.
Massachusetts Department of Correction et al.
Revealed: drug tests in California New York punished 2,000 prisoners
prisons yielded false positives, affecting I SEEENISINTLUTATE ST
thousands of people finds
s gt Qe Dt e st
s
ALBANY. N, (AP)- New Yorcs prison systam unfay
punihed mora 2000 prconees aret s of
Elipeced conraband subsiances assy esid
Do for cruge, ascordng 1.8 NY Inspecor Genara
et In gt o s, i poconars
ot no ofensa, ot s fawed est wers s
ot e oty onfnaman iy . o
1§ “
“We have deployed
14,000 Kioskt atd over
oS i
Aimilian messages il
WevedaRertttol
o songs: We have
eployed axer 300,000
oo e have
felvercd over 1,000,000
llinois’ signed a new contract is with ICSolutions for
phone, “ernail”, and tablets: the contract also offers the
capability to “scan and digitally delivering the mail to the
population”. However, IDOC hasn't made
announcements: *How this functionality will be utilized is
still being determined and IDOC is committed to continued
dialog withkey stakeholders on thisissue,» says 1D0C
spokesperson Naomi Puzzello. We are heating they are
having trouble rolling out the new phone and tablets:
people are losing access to the old GTL tablet and going
Weeks between systems with no working communication.
Iesolutions is owned by Advanced Technology Group
(ATG) which is owned by Keefe Group and ultimately TKG
and HIG Holdings. That the same corporation owns both
the Keefe commtissary empire as well as Trinity Services
Group - the food contractor for many state prison
systems such as Michigan DOC - creates a monopolistic
conflict of interest creating the profit inventive to lower
genpop food quality to increase commissary sales.
HIG holdings also owns notorious Wellpath - privatized
healthcare provider for people in prisons such as
Pennsylvania DOC - that mited in lawsuits has filed for
bankraptey protections in late 2024,
The FOIA'd ICSolutions contract contains detailed
information on their monitoring capabilities. The
ENFORCER™ and The ANALYZER ™ The COMMUNICATOR
™ allows prison staff to “look up physical locations,
cross-reference contacts, visual contact networks, track
fangaffilations, and fcllates sharing data with other
aw énforcement ] intel agencies”
Despite the proliferation of prison communication monopolies,
some are in hot financial water. SmartCommunication, after
scandalous family drama and 86 million in debt, filed for
bankrupicy in Dec 2024. Write us for the full story
ISR T Sov Dt o s Pris rfr:
‘The Succession Battle For A
Prison Empire
L o, marion oot oo Conict 04
s i hrs 3 lga war s xpsng et
How Activism Brought Securus to the
Brink
O the ook o ropay 1.3 bion of dobt thisyer, the
natorss argost prson tlacom compary
0 bankiuptey s fallre would repracerta
usness of g ot fom roners. remarkable vctoryfor dvocates- and 5 potertal
Beginning of the end or e ndusty a5 we knom it
LOCKDOWNS AT FCI THOMSON
We attempt the “administrative
grievance” process but we get
stonewalled and told that the
mailroom “know what they’re
doing and are following palicy”
Hello again from ECI (supposedly)
‘Thomson: high security, low
classification. “We run this like a
medium because we can!” constantly
onlockdown for no known reason
facility! Guess what? We're on
lockdown again! We're told this one
‘will be 2 weeks plus, but not why. The
Vs are all npluggéd n the day room
S0 we can’t watch the news, we can’t
revalidate or change our tablets or MP3
players (which we have to do at
minimum overy 2wk o they lock us
out), a radio sells for approx. $80 on
comimissary (i we were allowed to
shop). One other thing, our current
meals consist of breaklast: 1 apple, 60z
dry cereal (bran flakes), and 1 pint of
skim milk. Lunch & Diner: 4 pieces of
bread, 1 apple, 1 packet of peanut
buttef, 1 slice of lunch meat. So
theoretically we are being punished fog
something o get this trestment, right?
‘And, oh yeah, Warden Lammers has
ecilded that mail is now a privilegel
Warden Larmmer’s [unpublished]
Insttutional Supplement on Mailand
the way the head of the mailroom C/O
Foster has chosen how to administer
and interpret it. My cellie was nice
enough to print ouit a copy so I could
send 1t to you to help explain what is
going on:
- The local procedures directly violate
Program Statement 5265.14 and a
couple laws
‘There should not be a price tag on
our life' | USP Thomson staff union
renews calls for new mailroom
screening protections
+ No directives are actually referenced
in this supplement
- A second paragraph this violates free
speech and it was decided in the 705
that mail is a right not a privilege
- They are no longer notifying inmates
of regulations so we don’t know unless
someone tells us
A5 e national policy only the
Warden can reject mail and for very
specific reasons SIS should not be
involved in he process at all
Implementation: f it’s not a book,
‘magazine, newspaper, of catalog, it
gets cople 1's more than s pges,
You'stifl only get 5 pages. I had
Something come in from the FBOP
regional office out of Kansas City and
they copied that too! This prison
decided that despite national policy
there is no difference between personal
‘mail and mail from a business.
Newsletters are hit and miss, catalogs
are thrown away 9 times out'of 10
because they don't have ‘FCI
Thomson” on the address or have a
mailing label on them. We hear back
from ot families that they are getting
‘mail back unopened and books sent
back to Amazon without anyone being
fold why. Then of course there re the
books that just vanish. People will go
down to the mailroom with the
tracking i and mallroom staf il ell
them; the tracking # doesn’t exist (it
does).Just becausé it shows that the
books got to the local post office it
doesn’f mean they ever got here (our
post office must be the worst in the US
i they "lose” as much mail as this
place says they do). Our mailroom is
understaffed So it could be 2-4 weeks
il they process our books, or our
favorite “Tdon’ tknow, write an email”
17 officers taken to hospital after being
exposed to ‘unknown substance’ at
federal prison
ru |
Ve ax
imediate action:
T Gonduct 8 full imvestigation into the pattern of lock
Sncluding the facility's justification o
health, Tysical health, and il of
2. Towestigaté. the ongolng issue of donied FSA credit
to ensure inmates are Fecelving the
to by Ine
3. Requl
Cation duing lockimne, tneluding acce
Sorvespondence
e gotry:fesuss of food quELIty, pedical care, e Lo
aring lockdoms .
o o Formal wettten response ulth findirgs and proposed soluc
B ol oy oo e ke of this leter, "
e LRt hinTs sppacent ibil1ity 1o maintain now op
6. Contemplate a chat
(of course never gets answered). We
attempt the “administrative
grievance” process but we get
Stonewalled and told that the mailroom
“know what they re doing and are
following policy” even whien we can
prove they are not. And then, when we
o for the third step which ¥ sending
the grievance out to the regional office,
we rarely ever hear back. I personally
‘have been told by 2 separate officers
that a very large amount of mail is
‘going to SIS and very little of that is
&ver feturned to the mailroom. Another
told me that ALL mail being sent to the
regional of central offices ow goes
through SIS. All of this is according to
the administration now national policy
due to an officer in California coming in
contact with Fentanyl and dying,
“This appears to be another
attempt to stop all incoming
mail for good.”
P'm writing about FCI Thomson, The
Jast Several months the institution has
been increasingly censoring our mal.
10 wide range of issues from.
discarding, not copying correctly
eecting ‘Without notification and not
allowing any pictures even from places
fike freeprints (family pictures).
On Tuesday April 15 4pm we were
locked down for the rest of the night for
astail meeting. On Wednesday April 16
11:30am exactly when we finishet
eafing in the chow hall the institution
went on lockdown.
COs advised us the mailroom staff was
expgsed (o drugs and also responding
stal
‘The Warden Lammer has since stopped
fomally requesting that the forth Central
the facility to establish a clear and tr:
take the
Regional Offic followin
e a0 thei §
e fssue
Hitg
s to phone
Letter:
all incoming mail. Outgoing was
stopped for a time. This apiears to be
anather attempt 10 stop all incoming
‘mail for good. They are already gettin
away with photocopying all of our mai
Last year at this same time we were
locked down for a claimed picture of a
gun that was never found.
P writing about the censorship. Can
you help bring attention to this? Please
and thank you! - Anonymous
“I.can’t even trust that you will
get this! I just hope that
someone out there can do
something with this info to
help us STOP these almost
constant and obvious FALSE
lockdowns!
Iwas once given one of your
publications. I don’t have a date, but
it's the one talking about IDOC banning
books and mail
P’ here at ECI (ex USP) Thomson,
‘where we lock down QUARTERLY for at
Teast a week I've been stuck here since
Dec 26th, 2024 We have locked down:
Pt s (e art v
YAEAE R R W k-
PR e
Now, we've been on lockdown for YET
AANOTHER staff exposure. The lie told
10 ourlocal TV news was “12 officers”
but the Gestapo interview said only 1
13
However, thistime they ve gonea step
beyond jist the lockdown. Since the
lockdown began on the 16th, ALL
INCOMING MAIL HAS BEEN STOPPED
'UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE, according to
the propaganda shoved through our
door, this Is due to the old umbrella
seipt of “Safety and Security of the
staf and population”’
Now, not only can we not phone our
family, we can write but not receive
anything back. This also includes
rellgious studies and LEGAL MAIL, as
wellas ordered books, magazines, and
‘newspapers. We can only Hope we will
et them once their censorship stops.
ast night, they even went around and
unplugged all the TVs in the units.
Please tell me where THAT falls under
our “Safety and Security!
“The Warden has stopped ANY
mail coming in to the prison,
reqular mail, legal mail,
religious mail”
I got transferred to FCI Thomson IL
December oth 2024 Once here | gofa
[gb working inthe Kitchen on
cember 315t making 21 cents/hour.
We got locked down 2 days in
Decémber. After the New Year it was ok
the first 3 weeks or so. Then we were
locked down in our 2 man cells maybe
7itwide by Lt long with a ollet and
sinkin the room, The January 18th
lockdown went from 18th of January to
Friday February 7th in the morning.
The reason behind the lockdown was
from the COs saying a Race War
between 2 races, sothe whole complex
was locked down. During that lockdown
the first 2 weeks in January we received
for breakfast 1 little bag of Bran Flakes,
1 fruit, & 2 half pint milks. For lunch
and dinner we received for each meal 1
‘peanut butter packet, 2 jellies, 4 pieces
of bread 1slice of méat, and 1 fruit
That's all we got for the first 2 weeks of
lockdown, We also received 6 shower
daysJan. 315t 231, 27th, 29th, 31st,
and February 3rd.
The second lockdown since I've been
here was February 21st 2025 This
lockdown went until February 27th.
This was due to an exposure fo a drug
they said as a shakedown occurred ina
different unit than the one I'm in.
Meals improved o hot rays or lunch &
dinner. We received 1 shower on
Februaty 25th for the whole week. The
third lockdown happened on Sunday
March oth. This lockdown is about
Threats to Staff and it was over on
March 215t We received hot meals.
again and only received 3 showers
Tarch 12th, 14th, & March 17th 2025.
‘The current lockdown started April 15th
at 11:15AM on Tuesday. So far the meals
have been hot and we had 4 showers
April 18th was a warm shower and the
CO let us get hot water for coffee, get
tablets charged for 15mins. But on
Monday April 21st, the showers were
freezing cold and it was impossible to
shower,as well on April 23rd. On Friday
the 25th the showers were so hot that
the water almost burns your skin. Last
night the COs unplugged our TVs. The
reason for this lockdown is COS were
exposed to something in the mail room.
During this lockdown the warden has
stopped ANY mail coming in to the
prison, regular mai, legal, rligious
’m hoping this will get to the place it's
going. Thanks for yotr time
Copies of The Marshall Project’s
‘magazine being rejected by USP
‘Thomson for their investigative reports
on the prison. FCI Thomson was a
‘newly built supermax owned by the
state of Ilino’s before sold to the feds
to form USP Thomson’s “Special
Management Unit”, the notorious
supermax 2 year solitary confinement
step-down program. The SMU
program was shut down in 2023 after
investigations into rampant torture
and murders rchestrated by quards,
but has since changed into a Low
14
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
InApril 2025, we AT FCI THOMSON!
heatd from miultiple
peopieatret T e
omson aboutthe [ [ oo s peredcomntyntens,
bogus lockdowns
and the suspension
of all mail.
circulated their
prepared statement
h initiateda
l0ne zap targeting
e Warden and the
BOP Regional Office:
within days they
came off fockdown
and mail was being
delivered again.
AFGE 4070 “union” boss Jon Zumkehr (pictured here meeting with Eric
Sorensen D-Rockford) has been spreading disinformation through these
“blue flu” fake overdoses at least six times over the past few years to an
effort o deprive the rights of peaple incarcerated at ECi Thomson and
promote federal legislation which would ban physical mail in favor of
third party digitization corporations. The proposed law [LI 1046 “Mare
Fischer Memorial Interdiction of Fentany! in Postal Mail at Federal
Prisons Act” was named after the mailroom guard who supposedly died
{rom contraband- infused mail, but according (0 the autopsy and the
overnment’s own filings, Marc Fischer “died of natural causes from a
eart attack” There is o évidence o support any of thealleged
mailzoom overdoses anywhere or that banning physical maifor
increased lockdowns would stop the availabilify of drugs behind bars,
Despite 5 years of mail scanning ]
to keep drugs from Pa. prisons, Overdoses Rise in Missouri Prisons
‘problems remain Despite Strict New Mail Policy
Studies show that state prisons that use mail digitization
services have NOT reduced overdoses or availability of drugs
m[ fl'&,fl?flwfls» [——
|
MNISARRIVE RuLES
A den o o e v
| e S e ot o
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s bl recuieg o e v o 16
s e sy L e s e
et L e o
ouher 1 he e i s 3 o
Vi 11 1 ek vl b rcaeho v 05k b b
e e e o e 3
S sy sk b Revrse O
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e Cons ity amebey oy o e o
.%ot e g e e 05
S0k ke b v
e o5 o o o o et e e b e
e o s e gt o 4t i
vl e o o ey ol b
(bl ot s ey
1o o ernandes FEUSE
Check out more from Juan Carlos Hernandez at his Instagram @jch_convictedart
or his website hitps://wwnw.jchconvictedart om/
TAKE ACTION NOW!
CALL THE GOVERNOR=
ol thr you OPPOSEany proposal ot
1L i o s oo
USE ANY/ALL OF THESE NUNBERS'
[ TELL DIRECTOR HUGHES &
GOVERNOR PRITZKE
00,
o ulety hat mall from reaching people
imprisoned i L hey must not succeed:
toolkit: bit.ly/ IDOCma:
“Don’t take away our reading
materials just because some
officers are crying wolf.”
Hello and good morning. I am writing
to you concerning the individuals who
are conspiring todeprive me and other
Sa-Bre=arg = 2117020
Wa-dtg-paey - M7-702-0244
Hrearing Tm
A7-762-C8 -
IO bB=b5=100%
Call seript i the toolkit-or ust speak from
your heart- {ookit:
itly/ IDOCmai
away our reason to stay away from
rugs.
We have been asking the officers why
the mail lady hasn'tben exposed to any
drugs, but somehow officers have beer,
because the mail lady handles all the
‘mail that comes through our prism and
prisoners of our Constitutional Right to it doesn’t have drugs oh it when she
feceive mail and reading material in _
prison. Please don't take away our mail
and publications.
Please don’t let our freedom of speech
and expression, our rights to receive
‘mail, and our access to reading
‘materials become privatized so that we
can become extorted out of our money.
T cannot afford to pay any more just to
get access tomy mall, neither can my
Family afford it: Don't take away our
reading materials just because some
officers are crying wolf.
1f the officers are being exposed to
drugs ke they clam, then why can't
they prove it? Where is the evidence to
support the officers claims? Why is
there no mailroom staf being exposed
to drugs, except, for officers? 1 am
fairly certain there is not a drug in the
world that only affects people who are
officers. If there is someonie who gets
caught with drugs in their mail, tfien
‘punish them an
surveillance, but don’t punish the rest
of us when we've been following the
rules. Finding out how and who's
bringing drugs in and holding those
eople accountable will be far more
eneficial o productive than stopping
handlesit, but somehow it allegedly
does when the officers ahdnle If. The
officers claimed “that’s because drugs
come through the logal mail, not the
regular mail”. If this s known... why is
gveryone calling foral of ur -
legal mail to be Suspended? What
purpose does that serve, other than an
ulterior motive?
Iwould like to point out that the
officers wear rubber gloves when
passing out legal mal,so [ don't know
ow they get exposed to anything Also,
tomy kniowledge, all the drug exposure
tests have come back negative, which
contradicts the officer’s claims of
drug exposure epidemic.
Itis important to note that the IDOC
officers and their union have been
caught in the past trying to scam
taxpayers for their monéy when they
conspired tofile their carpal tunnel
class action lawsuit, which proved
lace their mail under ~false. It is upon information and belief
that ihe officers are attempting
something similar with these alleged
drug exposures. Plus, they ge the
added benefit of taking more things
‘away from us in the process, which is
something they always seek to
our mail ever will. A little effort, proper ~accomplis
recautions, and common sensé can
elp to alleviate these issues. Taking
away our physical mail will only take
We have already had almost all of our
out of cell time taken from us, under
17
T3t s ety
o putnd bacavse o e of
Za el o wantlt utse only had bun Yods and Ve ay been oble fo ged
o the Low Uibeary bute o that Hue
10 1 ga | Phgeasse ;
der'al :
T can desecibe i werds,
the guise of new policies meant to give
us beter access to showers and phones.
Ithas had the opposite effect. We have
less movement now than we did in a
‘maximum security prison.
‘The Warden at Big Muddy, upon
arriving here, imiediately went after
‘and shut dowh all the leisure time
Services and any programs we had to
entertain ourselves and stay away from
the drugs and violence - particularl
Dungeons and Dragons and Magic
Gathering players They don'twant us
playing i, o they are doing things to
‘make it impossible to play, even though
the people who play those things are
about the only ones not associated with
drugs in prison. Our Art Class has been
shuf down and they won't sell us the
basics that we need to work on Art, like
white paint or any paintbrush setsor
drawing pencils. We haven't been able
to read any books from the library since
March because they fired our librarian
and haven’t replaced her. Our
dayrooms are now segregated, so we
‘have even less time to socialize or
interact with others.
In the last two months, we've only had
two yards and I've only been able to get
to the Law Library twice in that time.
Itis difficult enough for us to
rehabilitate ourselves in prison, even
‘more 50 when IDOC is hindering our
aitempts or otherwise preventing us
from doing so.
Now there are people on the outside
ing to make our lives even more
difficult when they have no idea what
its like to be in prison. Please don’t
punish the rest of us for the actions and
Words of a few, Find a better solution.
Don't assume that the officers are
telling the truth, because they have a
history of lying, and worse, so make
them prove thelr claims before making.
any decisions. Help me and others like
me to become beter people than we
used to be; don’t hinder s from
bettering ourselves.
Thank you for your time and patience,
and for the opportunity to speak on my
‘own behalf concerning mail and
ublications. I greatly appreciate any
1elp you can provide In protecting our
ight o receive and obtain mail and
put
cations. I for one need the
sentimental value that it provides in
order to make it through life in this
hellhole we call prison;
Lam sending a copy of this letter to
Governor Pritzker's Office, and to
Latoya Hughes, director of IDOC. I can
onlyhope that t helps .
“I plan on writing my rep over
the books + mail when I
get more envelopes. This
Costing 8o cents per envelope
does hiurt compared to the old
50 cents per stamped envelnfi.
Our water currently smells li
ariver and the taste is odd in
the mouth to drink, let alone
smell and bathe in.” -
Vandalia
Restricting the mail or
Teplacing it with scanning
LNOT increase our safety.
1, thendersigned, on behalf of mysel
and all individuals currently
incarcerated in the IDOC or will be in
the future, am writing in protest of the
proposed change in policy that will
suspend delivery and/or electronically
can incoming mal for people n the
llinois Department of Corrections
(IDOC). All parties considered are
‘opposed toany action that will
temporarily of permanently halt the
processing and delivery of original,
physical mail to those of us
Incarcerated.
‘The safety of those that live as well as
those that work in IDOC is important
Restricting the mail or replacing it with
scanning WILL NOT increase otit
safety, It has not changed the influx of
drugs in other states that have replaced
‘phySical mail with scanning, There is
‘noevidence that banning physical mail
produces any safety benefis for the
individuals that live or work in any
institutions. Instead of suspending our
treasured form of communication with
our loved ones on the outside, we urge
youto 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.
Times are indeed changing -
as well as the continued loss of
IDOC prisoner rights!
’m 62 years old now, currently on 33rd
year of imprisonment. So I've been
around, have seen too much; vet
reading your enclosed News Koundup
we leartied of IDOC's new efforts to ban
books generally and per policy rule
05.03.451to bah hardback books.
Foralmost 24 years Dve been stuck in
hell that s called Pontiac CC. Oddly,
Dve always been able to have hardcover
bookssent njecived rom family/
friends, wonderful bookstores like _
yours, and ordering from various mail
‘order companies stich as Hamilton. I
know the mail room gets away with not
following rules when any mail s
denied: I've had family & friends get
their majl returned to them with fio
notice of reason why!
We saw reported on local news that
1DOC will do a pilot program in about 7
‘months transition to private mail
digitization service. I'm not sure f that
will be through crap company GTL and
ViaPath which already profiles just
crappy tablets apps and services which
ina word sucks: sadly it’s the only
‘game (scam) for music access IDOC
inmates have. The one app that’s not
provided isa egalapp fo do our own
legal research t0 fight for our freedom!
Towit - IDOC doesi’t want us to obtain
our freedom in any respect.
Many suspect actors will make $ from
allowing mail to be put on tablets.
Security wil always find away to do
less work and inmates always end u
paying the priceand enduring to sulfer
loss of rights and s0 on. No question
Ilinois politicians, 1DOC and justice
departments are all watching closely
how the federal prison USP
other state DOC surely our
nelghboring state Wisconsin to see how
‘mail scanning there is faring as IDOC
getsready tofol ut the pilct program.
s tocivil actions brought against 1D0C
for bad conditions, harns, Ioss of
rights, catch-all rulings allowed IDOC
itS'evil deeds to contintie and take take
take from inmates under the needs of
satetyand security ofsoff and prisons
themselves, fuck the rights an
conditions for inmates.
Pontiac, Illinois
omson,
T dbesa't help thed we dosd have @ Worcian ot
Hhe moments I oleat #hink we have had one Sec
Over b meonths now, and T dent think he
have
el Hhe jolo listing yed. T+ didnt help Shroun,
that when the Jas? [ banan was Dese, she decided o
ot picl R o \eA or books
[t she dawed wese o\d
Are etz fahinG o£amn
of
lepYe=}a!
~Mouid bz o prefounc easdal
e 2eet of ureNical
hafzes TohING UP Rz
amd naroeable_
%%:hma Wil Focitahe ine colechue
umbmamf_flmm erouieedl o omsIiioN
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laipi)
e N G aconvolLted 2oaty inat eaLies
t‘:m:mt ACHONING PNEPrcze LiniN
[H=Y
QLI COMMMUNITED.
“We strongly detest bein%
manipulated and lied to by the
very institutions charged with
our well-being”
Theard about the officers union and
uards peddling agendas o lighten
their workload. 1t’s another good way
of going about it the wrong way,
though- There needs to be an
enforceable penalty for state actors
willfully perpetuating insightful
asseverations to the detrimment and
suffering of others. In that talking
point that they were so intentional to
propagate, was there any mention of
tracing theé tainted mail back to its
source'in order to affect an arrest? The
‘mere faking of an overdose should be a
profound revelation as to the sort of
unethical tricksters taking up residence
iin the skins of trustworthy and
‘honorable employees tasked with
facilitating the objective rehabilitation
standards required to transition 1DOC
residents back into a convoluted society
that requires us to become functioning
‘members within our communities.
Are there not now substance sniffing
dogs in the mailrooms to detect the
substance that allegedly caused the
overdoses? Are there nt drug sniffiry
K9s along the chow hall routes to sni
out residents transporting this ko crap
as officers so kindly hinted of doing but
as of yet have not? One thing’s certain,
Security knows who the smokers are.
A while back when Rob Jeffreys was the
1DOC director, they started
(prematurely) announcing newer and
beter tablets with all of these new
updated apps. They even went s far as
to discontinue the sale of the current
GTL tablets and even suspended the
purchase of link units for our existing
tablet subscriptions. Real talk: “we
strongly detest being manipulated and
lied to by the very institutions charged
with our well-being.”
“Iam pissed off. I count on
these books.”
You recently sent me books: once
again, this mailroom has stopped all
biit orie you sent. They again said books
had unusual stains. paid to send them
home: my people went front to back
several times and saw not one stain or
‘marking
1.am pissed off. I count on these books:
many times we don’t get library.
Tinformed you Dixon CC does not allow
hardcover books. Their whole library is
‘mainly hardcaver and in 25 years I've
never seen or heard of an inmate
constructing body armor. Not ever.
P beginning to believe it's because
youstand up for inmate civil rights to
read and the book bans they're trying
toenforce.
1 thank you all for your hard work T
know many if all volunteer to do this. I
do appreciate you standing up for
books now.
Dixon, Hinois
“Why not wear a mask and
gloves while sorting mail?”
Twould like to thank you for the
services you provide. The mail is indeed
life- changing for people behind bars. I
could list Several reasons why, but just
getting mail or books and seeing your
Tame on the mail lst gives people a
feeling they sl exist.For some ofus,
we've been socially isolated due to
jpearceration: simply put, our friends
and family have just moved on, we
can'tget people to answer the phone
‘much Tess Send us a book or write us a
letter. For many of us, snail mail s all
we'll ever get. If thal s taken away,
we'll lose fearly all the communication
with the outside world. Combine that
with taking away books that have real
potential t6 better a prisoner’s
education, mental and spiritual health,
and overall knowledge. The DOC is
obviously hindering a prisoner’s ability
torehabilitate. 1 haven’t heard of any
‘mal carriers having the issues the DOC
is having. Also why hot wear a mask
and glovés while sorting mail? All of
smell smoke. They claim to be
nauseous and light headed, they feel
like they are going to faint/pass out.
Bt what about (hé people o the wing
that have to smell the smoke on a
constant basis, but aren’t passing out?
It doesn’t help that we don’t have a
librarian at the moment... It didn’t help
that when the last librarian was here
she decided to get rid of a lot of books
that she claimed were old and
‘happened not to be checked out. Alot of
those books she ended up throwing
into the trash.”
Why is Chess considered a security
isstie fo be banned from the tablet
game’s selection?
Big Muddy River CC, Illinois
the rion legal mail we get here is
scanned aiid we get a copy of the
original so don't understand how this
is stch an issue. -
Anonymous Bosch, Marion, llinois
“Why is Chess considered a
security issue to be banned
from the tablet game’s
selection?”
‘What people here at Big Muddy River
CC are writing grievances on is that the
Cos are claiming medical emergencies
because they walk onto a wing and
@toolathewriter
o s o e v S 355w
S e e,
ey gt e e et
e e et e e e
e (e e Tt
st e R LR e
Toola Tayor
#CraatinghtyOunLane
Thedrbanakeovar
HTOOLA
#BestSelingUrbanNovel
AimcanAmericant cton
HUrbanFiction & sacurity of pison stalf and stopping the praiferation of drugs ito the.
#TheSwipeNove! system, and continue to make thi push despite not having been provided
HTOOLAmaWrter
s cloar efablcdats fcucharaconan depeivatonbeingn octua
Solution. This is currently being Implomented n pisans across the country
3l filng to demonstrate that depriving prisoners of their mail works, ot
protacts atatfrom medical incidents - and there have boen no confirmed
Pcidents connecting aleged prison stff fentanyl overdoses 1o incoming
mail or books. In fact, there have been numerous such allagations by
prison workers that have been debunked by medical professionals - yot,
Brganizations such as AFSCHIE are orqaniing proteets outside prisons,
tagng wakloffs and coerinating disiocampaigns o supoordive s
iegifion Bun_ e TAUTHs i drimaly s ONEY GAS
#linois SCensorship |
The Censorship of Ideas is a Form of
Psychological Warfare: A Message
from the Diversionary Treatment Unit
ANARGHISM
RADICAL
TRADITION
R¢oop)
INMY
Eye )
crone 1 RoN
By Hybachi LeMar
In'The Palestinian Prisoner's Movement: A History, it's
written that "the primacy of the liberation of prisoners as a
collective goal of the Palestinian resistance is also emergent
from the unity of imprisonment as a place of militant
development, training, and socialization".
It teaches of the universality of imprisonment as a weapon
of warfare, and occupation, and that whenever there is
occupation, there is rebellion, and that even the most brutal
forms of imprisonment can emselves become schools of
revolt
In "Black Anarchism and the Black Radical Tradition",
Atcicys Baghy-Williams and Nsambu 22 Suekama articulates
that "black anarchist politics reside within a cultural oral
tradition"" Letters from jail and from exiled revolutionaries
and self-published literature in the form of zines, primarily
because many initial black anarchist intellectuals emerge
from prison struggles.
Brother Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin points out that these
naterials ae weapons against fascism, literacy) el
hatred, and lack of self-ésteem. Printing and shating these
ideas revolutionary enough to subvert these interlockin
oppréssions are an essentlal means of ur psychological
self-defense.
Defense against kick-backs, coverups; of mice that eat
through ramen noodle packets, of chipped-walls, peeling
ceilings, roaches, no cell windaws or air conditiohing; slave
Iabor, periodic denials of suicides. We're in a violation of
freedom of press: it takes maneuvering under radar, under
the censors, ideoiogical - [this is a call from Pennsylvania
State Correctional [nstitution Huntingdon. This call is
Subject to recording and monitoring]
Nota single lifer I spoke with where I'm confined was aware
of the 2016 nor 2011 country-wide prison strike: a political
form of protest - largely due o targeted newspapers denied
to them by mailroom officials.
What helped me got through whilen the hole?Self.
discipline, meditation, and the application of knowledge. A
healthy vibe of: do pushups and study. Do sit ups and study.
Do dip off the side of the toilet and recall what I've learned
while pacing the cell.
Robin D.G. Kelly acknowledged the way Robert F. Williams
insisted that "all young black activists undergo personal and
moral transformation'” It was a familiar lesson embodied in
the lives of Malcolm X & later George Jackson, the idea that
one possesses the reyglutionary wil o transform one's self.
‘Government attacks on newspapers and books have played a particularly violent
role in South Africa during apartheid. For example, as early as the 19505, it was
behind the repression of urion papers like Morning Star; and in he Sos,on
books like "Biko", on the South African Bantu revolutioriary who was banned
{rom being comminicated with while i publc as well ashfs teachings before his
torture and execution.
‘The power of print can also be felt in Rojava. Before 2011, when North and East
Syria was pregnant with revolution, we saw several similar circumstances: labor
pain, miscarriages of Justice, society satytated with cortuption and nepotismy
Survelllance and censorship everywhere. These very conditions, however, spawn
a species of thinkers who evolved, who brood over books, whose diet consists of
ideas, who find themselves stirririg, mutating, in the resérvoir of the repressed
social imagination.
Before his assassination August 21, 1971, general and field marshal in the Black
Panther Party George Jackson spoke of his revolutionary awakening, of his
transformation. While in San Quentin he wrote "I met Marx, Lenin, Trotsky,
Engels and Mao; and they redeemed me."
And from an isolated cell o imrali Island, Abdullah Ocalan - the now-renowned
revolutionary of the Kurdish freedom movement - became exposed to the social
ecology writings of anarchist Murray Bookchin. He cross-bred Bookchin's ideas
it s own principles of el determination, which assisted dynamically in
hatching the Rojava revolution.
Qcalan analyzed how our ecological crisis is a symptom of human hierarchy and
domination. And with this diagnosis, directly inspired the demacratic
autonomous administration of North and East Syria DAANES with a radically
feminist revolutionary prescription of direct detnocracy against the state.
The force of censorship has failed to epress the resurrecting powers of Black
consciousness our martyr Steve Bantu Biko gave rise to; nor did it stop General
George's message in blood from making it clear to the American government
that i it continues to kill us, then there will be funerals on both sides.
I the inal analysis,the censorship ofieas is a form of psychological warfare.
The state might ban' our books, they may dispose of our bodies, but they fail to
annihilate our ideas.
Ourbeloved compa Casey says "forward ever forever forward." It's practically
scientific: the more the repressive hands of state forces struggle to hold us back,
only catapults us further into the expanding arms of the revofution.
e
"
b P
Checkout iy ok thr it G s he b st ) andORstate
prisons, probably others) Wrie us or a copy or astér on HelpACompa com
“They bully us women”
Thave been incarcerated 18 years! We
are not allowed anything that shows
body parts! We are motlers and
‘grandmothers! We're not allowed
Journals of any sort! No art books that
teachyou things, how to draw or
create. No children’s coloring books! If
we get therm, we have 0 lthr destroy
or donatel We can only order books
from :D. Marcus or Union Supply
catalogs Just so we have to pay high
prices for the books, because the
system gets a huge cut for our staff who
say that they're underpaid to sit on a
computer all day or sit there and do
‘nothing and yell and scream at us from
the officer’s desk! They bully us
‘women, take advantage of our
surrounidings, they now don’t even
‘have to have a High School Education
or GED to be employed. All the old.
officers leave becatise of the way they
treat us women.
Wehave mold and rust everyuhere, but
don’t have the money to replace thése
items - beds, showers, cabinets where
we put our clothing and underwear.
Rust s an item that can cause lockjaw -
‘mold can kill us! They'd rather use
Bureau Of Prisons To Restrict Mass
“To Prisoners.
‘The Bureau of Prisons is implementing a
new system to restrict mass emails
coming into prisons.
Iz
taxpayer dollars to buy lights on their
heads for the medicationine, of
lighted wheels on their health care
emergency medical bags! And 1/2 the
time the boys are full with items that
are non-functioning. They say they re
understaffed so they can cage us up like
animals and when they let us out at the
least 10 people go to see because
they're wound tip! They lock us down
‘when Madison comes in to see how we
are treated, and no one can talk to any
of them. They cover up a lot! Especially
the men COs that yell and scream at us
because they re overworked - yeah ok
1/2 of the COs fall asleep on their jobs!
But they don’t reprimand them for
that! We are a med-max facility that
most of us all get treated like we’re
supermax or death row! Our grievance
systemis for the COs. Wish we could
have Law Library on our tablets with
flash drives, not allowed yet, that’s
what's important! I can’t get no legal
help unless I have an Open Case.
Thanks forallowing me tgrespond. |
will write anytime. T am a Voice from
within these Walls!
Logan Correctional Center, Illinois
“The BOP issued a statement from BOP
Public Affairs’ Ben 0’ Cone stating, “In
esponse {0an Ofice of nspector
General (0IG) audit of the Federal
Bureau of Prisons' (FBOP) Monitoring
of Inmate Communications to Prevent
Radicalization (March 2020), the OIG
recommended that the FEOP establish
controls that mitigate the risk of
individuals commnicating with
unknown and un-vetted patties and
take steps, including the utilization of
available technological features as
found in TRULINGS, to reduce the risk
of mass emails being receiving by
highrisk individuals, includiry
terrorists. As a result, the FEOP's
Executive Team decided to reduce the
‘number of emails that an outside pari
could send into a group of incarcerat
individuals to ten- This measure was
taken to comply with the OIG audit.” It
‘would seem ke a more sensible
approach would be to restrict the
emails and improve monitoring of
Certain prisoners so the larger group of
prisoners could continue to enjoy
»4hose newsletters.
truthout
Communication Crackdown in
Federal Prisons Has Been
Operating Quietly Until Now
ilja J.A. Talvi, Truthout
ed June, 2024
By i
Pubish
“The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP)
has quietly but steadily been
implementing a nationwide policy that
silences the voices of people
incarcerated in federal prisons by
MU LA DEFENSA
A
P L
preventing them from sharing the
same email and phone contacts for
people on the outside, also known as a
“double contact ban.”
The policy, which gives prison
authorities wide leeway to censor
communications, appears o have gone
through an intenSive test run for thie
past toyears at a Minnesota women's
federal prison, FCI Waseca, where
roughly 900 incarcerated people
recelved a written warning from the
warden on March 13, 2024
‘The notice sent to prisoners’ emails
could neither be printed nor forwarded.
Truthout was able to obtain a capy of
the policy, which reads in part:
FCIWaseca Inmate Bulletin: “Recently, a
review by SIS [the Special Investigative
Services] was condiicted on inmates”
email and phone accounts at FCI Waseca
‘and it was discovered inmates are actively
sharing emails, addresses and phone
‘numbers with other inmates housed at
FCILand within the Bureau of Prisons,
With the exception of approved inmate to
inmate correspondencé, egal
correspondence,advoccey groups and
educational informationthe sharing of
email addresses and phone numbers pose
asafety and security Concern for the
Bureai of Prisons and FCI Waseca.”
California prison system
considering mail digitization
Dozens of organizations published a
letter demanding the protection of
physical mailfor people incarcerated in
alifornia:
Dear California Budget and Corrections
Leaders,
We are writing to raise serious concerns
regarding the possible implementation of
digital mail scanning across California
state prisons through the California
Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation's newly executed contract
with Securus Technologes
25
FEDERAL BUREAD OF PRISONS
s return ( sender” form 1 qot, | hink U rom
the “newsletter” you send with the twitter feeds and
articles. Our mailroom has basically lost their minds
and are arbitrarily making their own rules.
Hundreds of petty rejections
ganznan{?l‘u?;ri jan, _
obinson, ani Pinckneyville as
cover for political censorship
Figure 3. IDOC Lockdown Days
o Lockdown Dy et b Lockdonn Days = Adiisin-bsd Lockion Doy
Figure 4. Access to Outside Supports Reported by Incarcerated People (1=8.572)
e L ———
e g
STl e e e TR 1%
s et -a
Suongly Dusgres = Disgee < Newnd «Apre @ Suongy A
Source: John Howard Associatign
Re: Book Donations sTaTEoF oI
et
52, WSt bl s 43943738
To whom it mey coucem: P e T e
“The decison was made o no longer accep doed books fo ffenders due he
mecting our policy sandards. We continue (0 fceive books n poorcondiion with s
conten, scker, markings, e The offenders are ot allowedthese books and i slos dowt our o3l
rocess. Al books ecived wil b refused nd retumcd 0 your company
e ko Pt Gt Pt How
o Wi oy o,
Tk o e i oy 1,303 Te i Deptm o oo (00 it o
it e ool o e e ot ey P ko
s T o v o ety 0 bk sl s ety b iy
e o e e e ot o o oo P -0 10 st o oy
e epeiog e
e ———
e o e oy A e S s o o s e o
Tty b e et i
.. Howiits
pendleton Indiana’s mail room
guard Yolanda Chambers rejects
gnything she doesn'tlike as
“stains”or “STG”, and once
tried to ban all “donated books”
but Indiana DOC reversed this
after a well-crafted letter
asserting our rights and the
rights of the confined. One
comrade has been retaliated
against forfiling grievances on
the rejections by being falsely
accused of recefving diug-
soaked mail (eventlially
dropped): now there’s an active
federal lawsuit for denying
access to mail communications.
In the past year, two of our correspondents were falsely accused of receiving mail
from us that allegedly tested positive for drugs. Both people were put in
restrictive housirig and had communication privileges taken away: We followed
yp with them and called the prison to complain, and they eventually had their
disciplinary charges eventually dropped. Pison officials may act ifferently if
they know that péople outside will bring attention to their false charges.
Fedd Geoonced T uonnd 4o Thgak Y
Wnke & alling_ e RS wos ey ¢
Joousieg Sl LransGrred Uople OT dbe (ncile
1ol dicoissed, O Prison Sysleen 5 ormuphs
C resliich
Most jails in Chicaflo's surrounding counties
have eliminated all physical mail in favor of
profiteering digitization contractors
\ May 2025; Lake
N
County jail goes all
digital mail with
=\ TexiBehind
T
May 2023; DuPage
Gounty jail gocs al
digital mail with
TextBehind
November 2023: Will
County Defention Center
goes all digital mail with
" Smart Communications
June 2024:
Kankakee County
jai goes al digial
mail with Securus
State prison
systems have
transitioned to
mail scanning at
an alarming
rate - from
statesto 27 in
just four years.
.g{ler switching to ‘Wisconsin prisons restrict books
‘extBehind to eliminate and mail to keep drugs out, but
physical mail, Wisconsin DOC some staffstill bring druy
‘went after the books: last St i
August, Wisconsin Books to
Prisoners was told they could
no longer send to people
throughout WIDOC prisons.
After campaigning and
negotiations, they appeared
willing to allow books from
Just their group s long as it’s
“new books only”.
Minnesota DOC restricting how
Minnesota DOC also fell to incarcerated adults in the state can
TextBehind mail scanning in purchase books
November 2024, and initially
restricted books to only a few
vendors. Fortunately,
multiple Books to Prisoner
groups including ours was
able to pressure them into
loosening these policies to
allow for our groups to
continue to share books.
SmartCommunication’s patents on MajlGuard™: they
hilariously failed trying to sue other prison tech corporations
for copyright infringement
Minnesota
November 2024; Contracts with TextBehind to
digitally scan all incoming mail: people receive
printous. All books nitally resiriced to 5 vendors;
after campaigning, expanded to include 5 Books to
risoner groups including ours
July 2022: Contracts with
B Digeonly to digitally scan
all incoming mail: people
receive printouts.
Books must come from
one of only two
“quthorized vendors”;
“Books N Things” and
Edward R. Hamilton. No
hardcover
United States
Missouri
July 2022: Contracts with Securus
to digitally scan and print all
incoming mail
September 2023: Books are no
longer accepted unless directly
purchased by people inside from
only “bona fide” publishers
30
Michigan
* All incoming non-~legal mail is photocopied: the
originals are not given to the recipient
* January 2025: Contracts with TextBehind for DOCS
"legal mail” system requiring attorneys to register to
supply QR codes on each mailpiece to verify the source
* Books must come from one of six "authorized
vendors": Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Edward R
Hamilton, Schulerbooks, Walmart, or Prison Legal
News (after a 2019 lawsuit)
Ohio
2025: ODRC contracts with
Global Tel Link to l/q tally scan
all incoming mail. %2 the prisons
8 are already implemented, ¥2 are
receive photocopies
“Legal Mail” requires attorney
registration with ORDC. In May
2025 the Ohio Justice & Poli
Center sued over the policy o
scanning attorney-client
protected mail.
Books must come from
“authorized publisher”;
interpretation and rejections
vary rom prison to rison but
have steadily increased. No used
[
-
Indiana
2025: New Command 5 tablets from GTL/ViaPath
2020: All incoming non-legal mgil is photocopied: the
originals are not given to the recipient.
2018: Indiana DOC began restricting only to Amazon and
Edward R Hamilton. In 2021, a HRDC lawsuit forced them to
reverse this: books are now accepted. No hardcovers, petty
rejections increasing
Prison Censorship Survey
As part of our campaign against
prison censorship and boo
anning, we've sent over 1200
zines and surveys out to our
incarcerated correspondentsin
the trenches sowe can
understand the current situation
and develop strategies. We've
published the full responses on
our website, but we're sharing a
few excerpts here. Combined with
the responses that others in the
coalition have received, it's a
‘wide-ranging, enlighténing, and
heart-breaking perspective of the
problem. It has it a fire in our
Souls, reminding us of the
urgericy and importance of this
carmpaign.
Have you ever had books or
other materials blocked or
confiscated? If so, which ones?
Why? Tell us about it.
4 Zines from East Bay Prisoner Support,
Life without Law, The Insurgent Southwést,
The Solitary Anarchist, Grand Jury
Investigations FI Harassment and Your
Rights.| have filed an appeal to BOP
Regional Office. | il exhaust my available
xemedies & filea lawsuit." - Marlon, linois
“Economic Books, Legal Mail, Education
Material Confiscated for suspicion of drug
tratficking." - Cook County Jail
"Yes. 've had prison legal news and
prisoner revolutionary news letter blocked.
as told that it contained language that
incites violence or poses a security threat to
the institution.” - estvlle Correctional
Facility
“House building (how to build, from site
selection through paint and rzs)
‘Apparently "safety & security' However, I
nowthe bool bulding houss as my trade
contain true historical anecdotes?" -
i
"The book I requested and ordered was
dentedBecal s oLt sl Chiof which
they claim i was fof artial ats purposes. 1
e e G e puose o help
i my depression and amety” - MCC
Chicago
"Yes. OUT Magazine. It's amainstream
LGBTQ magazine that is commonly caled
Foscene porography” and “injurous
‘material" 1 subseribe to this as many other
Inmates do, The institution ibrary routinely
targets each issue now. - WIDOC
Have you ever been l;lmished
for reading material that was
sent to you? If yes, what were
the materials and what was
the punishment?
Y oo radng okt o
wihppehepalicinen il 2
solsio i st gl il
B g o RS T
e
“I have been punished and retaliated against
such 35 unfactual disciplinary conduct
Fepors fo harassment from Iemal
Inkestigations Cannotaitend specal count
etters. orced to pay higher shipping costs
10 send the materta back to the publisher.
Sendleton, ndiana
5000 fuesome Fcts (About Everything)”
lwsas) Gl on ot He enire it uigg)
‘meant for ehildren. | was threatenéd with
Tl nd et st o oer
e e Ppdlo MO me
R erion
"Yes They give s STG gang tickets (even
e o BB e,
aoramthingtiy S Bl
v e o gt s & 3o g and
even atransies to igher secugity prison:
%51 he e the Bense® riheriatis
rmless. - Pinckneyville
Should the prisons have the
power to control what you can
and cannot read or see? If yes
OR no, why?
o, Because it s our constitutionsl st
Amendment ight. - Conk County i
“No.Institytions should not limit wht we
resd OF S ecme they do ok Khow iy
Wewant o s o fead the msterals we e
Seniing . they connotread our mids ot
Ry derotand whap we St ting
0d0Th sur ndhiualpaihs - Cook oy
Jai
gLy rehabilaon, e
ook Coonsy ol
DR e he el o epd
R A
Coptinit o See e Sobat oer
o th beles oy houis e
PR b o eveont Sl
P el B
e ot have bt
e o)
eprccaton | havebser Roved s,
o e o AR
Alt-Right, Man a‘fk:heco'snlafhémi_l\s
n.é‘y‘.{\‘;c’;mm.m é".‘?g;ulm boldto
FEs e upremacit deplopes Seeing
T Bk e e e
"No.Fwas confind in the 10905 and sctual.
PR A
Do A
e e sy o Peoesfes e 00
A
Litorm poliey by whith mean enforce the
Written one they have, they just dowhat
ey want and chte the policy - WIDOC
Are you in a facility that scans
incoming mail? Does the
mailroom copy or scan
newsletters and other printed
reading materials? Does the
facility's scanning policy affect
our ability to read books and
terature:
33
"' gt a facilty that scans everything The
amphlet T recelved From yall and thesurve
{vas Scanned: ves i makes it hard o read
e words are smeared. They ave a really
bad Scanner. < Rew Caste, faana
"Yes Iam being denied to have access to
Hard-Cover Boglas sating a safly &
Sy Sehesbutfcanfiove s clevisgn or
ELIIbler that has glas. and piastc
Canbe turn into a weapon and hore of .
Security threat than a Hapd- Cover book. The
EB UL piing profts From the GL-
ablef o must st gome,and
‘movie aps over nhates safety & Securty.”
PRt dtan i
"Yes! To all above! Also affects legal access.
My coiet il s st 2 o Tl
copiad open outside my presence. Phptocoy
R i postmar
Sich. Prvileging themselves to my egal
personal tssges-- USP Coleman 1, FL. °
{WIPOC uses Texthehind,whoregylarly
bt e e G
Jotos get massively degeaded reguiar
i sanfe photo can be sent multile s
0 ot ok ooiing diferent each time
They've even squished photos out of
Proportion justto fit them onto one pa
Eathe than printing it corvectly on ahother
Page (cbviotsly o Save fewcents). AS an
A, having my reference imagery core
rough IrLed s SEgravating, shd 105
isrespectful o treat iy family photos so
Poorhy - Waupun, Wisconsin
In your present facility or any
previous ones, did you receive
a clear explanation of the
facilities censorship policy? If
s, is it applied consistently or
fairly? If no, what is it they tell
xou when something gets
locked?
“No. LOL:) I laughed when reading this one.
e el cating s o
Tyt iehng s SOHHRG Myt
24, or security threat on page 24.."
Bctneyiiets prge
“All they usually say is it is confiscated due
toractlty ol iFyou e ucky They might
e you s pullshit chcuse wi
Eonitscatedit. it all comes down 0 them
ixying o control us. - Miami CF indiana
o B ey
R i whbever K in the mat room.
M, 1
Have you ever filed a
grievance against your
materials being blocked by the
mailroom or getting
confiscated? Were you
successful? What was the
explanation for blocking the
material?
bt e
e
Menard, 1L e s
"o, This facility targets complainants so its
prient o ol oned basies My Smghiar
Eompiain imolvedstapling of potos vas
‘et with denial, then 3 policy change, then
hotos that were *lost & never fouhd." -
Ci Eikton, Ohio
“The grievance was unsuccessful, the #1
reason, which we cannot get around is they
Say “for the safety and Security of the
instinution” they wall not allow it n.” -
Pinckneyvile, L
havefled rievance against material
B A e e
o thim a5ty ot the
Dok The explanation for blockia the
B e g,
B mesty 5 bedsaae e i oo,
R A
34
Why do you think prisons
censor what materials you can
get? What's their game?
"I think prisons censor the materials we can
getasa form of control and punishment to
s uninformed and ignbrant. The less
we know, the more they can manipulate us
and abuse us." - CCOOC/L
“They give all kinds ofreasons, but rul
thini¢ifis to make usfeel s miserableas”
possible. They don' have to o, they.
Eiose to, So that means they do it out of
Spite:” “hami CF Indiana
s pons o el
o
g gttt il e
s e e
i o g e
et e poy e e
L e
el ont el bl
ety ool
Byl oo
ortant to you? If
away to pass
improvement?
Is reading im|
ves, how 07,
time? As sel
Education? Do you read daily?
"Reading is my method of expanding my
knowledge and wisdom n order o gEow
‘mentally: emotionally, physically, and
Spiritually. 1 also Use Feading for fecreation
283wy 6 rela and ccape nto another
world. read everyday a Various points
throughout the day." - CCOOG/L
1t s my current only way to escape from
this sitdation” - ackionmile .
Al ofthe above, I read for away to pass
time,self-mprovement, education. 1y to
et copy hoyts oy And oo row
of reading, 1T wil push us back to fhe stone-
Sges.* USP Bequmont
"Everything you mention. Plus
emeTAmIMER: Education covers everything
(mental- Spirfuah amoona) bat asg
Gl il ehdee S Bearion
nowidee. UnlsEoanding Underaianding
K prejiice Mark Twaiichas s quote.
S el andersanainebing fal
P proedice T Menardit
Al of the above. When I am reading 3 book
1am ot in prison, 1 3m in the story-Plus the
only way T m goih 10 better myself so1
Gont come back to fis piace s education,
becaisethisplace doch T offer o ther
Way o better myself. Yes every day.
Hiami CF Indiana B
"It helps pass time. Helps me become
smarter:Kiso helps caith me down at imes.
Itaisg helps me escape realy. 1 alsodo read
R Dot Stae Peiteniary
"Reading s very important even though
am slow it byt the more | ead the fore
“ducatedT g I've started reading in the
eniientiat st f ot to pass Hine, it to
Bet etemal lnowiedge. 1 have. git What [
£6ad, g sight from my subeonsclous o
Sl 1 1 BE consetous, Althoughl do not
Tead datly, only certin basic ke pblical
ol have a drive Lo propheces” -
"Education: I read daily and I feed my brain
soTcan clevate myselr, ke Maicolm X and
Huey P Nevwion and Angela Davis” - £C1
Detelsburg
"Mainly for knowledge and self
improvement When fcan't get my books in
o being censored and blogked, [ have to
E0t0 my ison tablet and 1escarch case [
£ Can pain knowledge n fghting my case
iy and fighy Rl againatthe
Eonstitutional ights - Pendleton, Indiana
"1 read daily, it helps me learn about myself,
this Strugglewe fight a transgender
Women, Plople & WorkimE pecpe. . WIDOC
"Due to eading 1 applied mysel in so many
ways and I'm csrrently entolled inan
s patlega program ot wich ve
SEored ob mody frstiest and 1 now
entoling with Adams State University o get
Ty Bachelor's Degree in sociology." A
Blcago
35
Are there things you want to brend s worldto me ot here needto
read rightnow that are ety bols o conscion st so1
blocked? If so, what are rhe,s start and run a construction business when I
and why do you want themi? &t out of prison - Wesnille ¢
Are you able to organize an
orized book club or
reading group in your present
facility?
Computer ook They don'tuant s
Ieammig computers. Yettheorld s
B OBy epates " Northsranch
G aryland
"Yes House-building books o keep breast
of ne tehology: ol e 65 G TV T
e el e
ot omed mtenat robsby. Have you ever parti
o oy Bianket (o opprecoion s p
e b PR Bools 0 a book club or group:
i ey elow mandexpereice
e e hougts et tove
"There ar fewbooks tht come toming.
There s one sbowt et Eo e founde of
e Bone rpamization Tvanted
fis lacke foneorgamastiof Lvanied
Bookon the Bk Fanine pary it
because of align deglogy with the Back
Parihers - Renard
;mled
I think the big one is Sun Tzu's "Art of
‘War".Its one of the most significant
historical texts out there, and 1 have a
cultiral connection to it 35 I'm Chinese. I'm
f the opinion the ban on this book 1s
BTG RIS Have you ever been prohibited
stubbom {0 change. 1t not e The Atof ~ from informally discussing
War'" holds any secrets these days, with
someofhit b siiteiedine - books as a group?
‘modern psycholo Eam'stil sccess.
Nachiellsrifhnes s well a3 umber
of modern military Srategytactic boo
2nd rather aggresaive pscudo- psychoio
el el bod by Weltem autiors 10
VoRlimds was dented thapare [t of thee
PPN T ca ellve A mang that hdes
ity i one volume would shw it in
Another, especially since both series have
Pen’ tatings" WIDOC Waupun
“Everything! 'm supposed to and "not”
ippose do. T3 elbitate and kowmy
IegH rights. And every opporunity the fret
o TR R R
Do you have access to a law
library? If so, are passes or
ducats to the library readil
available or tough to get? Do
you receive the materials you
need? Are there any
restrictions you face, or
barriers to dccessing
materials?
*“The law librarian comes to us upon
equests iven to the counselor, e o
oger Rt stciss o che physical Law
Libfary since COVID and et then, only
certain divisions have s law [brary within,
SOt et e { oo it
Copies made of my certificates o give
Ebechise o ygrian wont copythem
CounyJail &
“1t's not hard to get to the law library, i the
prison isn't on lockdown but we seer! o be
BrTockdown 3 lot because of so calied ' Staft
Shortage. When 1 do go to the law library,
T'm able fo get the materials that I need." -
Westvlle CF indiana
"Tough to get a pass tothe law ibrary, o
B Bl you gt sher!
“The lawlibrary here s terrblel You can
only be there 38 minutes. And go once a
ey 3 And 3ot e they re out
of fonef 6 you can't make copies. > New
Casle, Indiana o
o, am in Resticive Housing Unic and
oyt A R
B e
Statfjofficers destroving outgoing legal mail
PRAGHe et Py
Sonconaslug o helaw by bt o
arefaloyedloualiardindshdco v
R i
"Yes, It's on several computers in thelibra
and on one n the housing unit We have
scces, bt s ot updated aoftenas 0.
el e ot HRRERR NS e
Pekin, llinois
g s oyt
How do you feel about the
quality of the books made
available in your facility's law
library? Do you have access fo
printing or a copy machine? Is
there a computer? What do
you wish you had access to or
available in a law library?
"W do ot have access tothe booi, nly
secons Thatwe fequeet Weavendaccss
Lo printingjcopy machines Librarian docs
BB R TRy aces o o
‘wish we had aceess to physical lw ra
where we could physicaly cess materials”
TSt TeSourebs e need.' < Cook Count)
Jai, s
"o books to check out, ' all on computer
~ i unit, T computer with legal access for
R L
ot of sarvice! Twould ke fullaccess to
any & allegal materals < Marion, Hinors
"The quality of the books available at my
faclity s laking,they are mostly over bsed
i me. down We'do ot ave ccess 101
Eapy machine: We doryt have Sccess o2
coRptes Twould e thire to e compters
for 10 type o, to draft clemencies ot lega
Gochmentes “Hienard, Hinor &
“Thecopies thatwereceive re s atecall,
Bave s two computer machine which T don't
Ko tows to wark them. Twish that we
could have available Serviceto help us
prepare ot documents o he coutts and
R the sise oo e sk o - D,
INope beokssince 2012 o carlier AL
arc-outof pan’ o ‘blocked: v
Sdministrator Jacksonvie G, Wisconsin
1 should ot have to have a deadline to be
b e T s i
"Guality of books are prety decent shape;
vt actess to 3 printér/coty machine, bu
e
Lo these prisans keeping us on lock down
Statie PUSP Beaumont
"Only 3 handfulof functioning computers.
Ve need 5 e allowed to pUrGkase word.
Processors. - Indiana Site penentiary
37
Has access to the law library at
urpresent acilitychanged
i&m’mng the pandemic? If yes,
ow?
“"Yes, The number of allowed to others at a.
time has been lowered, and only allowed to
attend 1 day a week. " - Plainfield CF, Indiana
“Gotten worse. We had no access during the
‘pandemic. Now it is hard because staff
Hortage or not doing their jobs." - Marlor,
Tlinois™ e
“During he pandemic we had no acees and
RS v
o R e o d I 0
o o s oand bope e
Does the facility allow you to
bring books and other
literature to the yard?
Are
bool
u allowed to share
or literature?
rsticiang T Faiield & indiona
"Booksto yard, no Yes, we can share
“We cannot bing them to theyard. At
Menarc ] was thcatencd with ST ticket
Fincknegule, Hinors
ot allowed to share anything, big rule. No
owed North
iloreiate Famentary
“They don'tallowit,but you know how e
“Can brin to yard however we cannot share
boaks besguse unmauthorized sansfer of
B i possessions.~Taycheedan,
Wisconsin® yeheedal,
do you feel about the options
forreading material available
services on it? What services do
they offer?
"o, To share books s considered
books "~ Big Muddy Rver CC 1
Tor Bifging RPC baoks o the yard. -
loaning and borrowing
get dowm. - Wabash ValldyCF, I8
Droperty" aind they throw fhem ot 1f found
Do you use a tablet? If so, how
on it What m%flm’es provide
Thereading materialsarevery retricted.
he oyt Edows The servcsoffred
Eadio for recreationl. Thére s alsoa phone
et ks~ ook count ]
Music, movl, podcas, and garming apps
it ke enagmgf}nm%s tha
Westulle CF, ndiina P
"The options for eading material on ur
tableols Gurdsted The Gblet omy g
Bk thatste pubic domain. piout o the
Dok oAb Bk Minericans e egtoor
Coloted They company hat providesservice
ot ablet o R 3l e 3 Ch pare
i Al e 2T R
"They have no reading material on ther.
Only Fames, Music, A TOViEs (o ent:
Tablet 15500, Garmes $3-3 - Son
0wt 3 each Movies about S4:00 andean
eeh sncar: YA Tt
38
WIDOC uses Access Tablts (T v SCORE,
R R LRl
Bloress mbeny Brec sty Ther are
o e
‘mostly from the ate 18005 and early 10008
R yem s ey andstet i and dosens
PRaReR B B e
LR S e and et
Fdoca Sotony S now TS
o e oo oot P bk
S B
T opely Mt s rotedtes.Other
bans ai eveh more baftling. Since.l can still
R
downloaded, I'll list them. [...] There's a
oAt ahot 2 podcecsall
PRUCLAPRD b2 dozenpodeat
sibsripton, S montd L st About 3
e e ol ecdblc B
o B oSty el AR enc
‘new gares, "Arch Knight' and "Budding.
et et th oo Dugs
e e M ot s
Pt e Amor LA P SR
POy for pemologieal imteeste hich
giard and in the other you clear pison
B v by ceman: arstare
e e oL vl
Tantasy land. Reep n mind this i the same
e Hhenc o0 By 3 Chld o oo
T S U
pepic foueier ot r sy sworan
B Yo k) Eroose o mharer
B b oot s o el
peyihet e LB T
recently ncreased the price of “
e bters o 82 o picing seems
el fo.3, e LIRSS
R T i maon et
25 Ao e remtos onty k45 o
RSP S SR,
e B oneeal e wiy thcough. Thert's
e B an L o
ey e, and s o
[ et R
hfi% St m‘éy\?f%’ Eminated
Zmounts of ext. The tablet vendor contract
isup soon and everyone (ncluding OC
staf s farly sure Acccss willose the
o a3 L ey by facyae
Somictin 2oal Iis siywhy eyl
et b oxherstes eep
S wndor i
vl e X;ndn%la%es the contract), have
S Peked U fie B rental prices They
e Shey Lot ose the comisac 00
o e
i S S
Has your outgaing mail ever
been censored?
If you are a writer or artist,
ave restrictions on outgoing
mail ever made it difficult to
publish o self-publish your
Writing or creative worl
"Yes, it took me 14 years to self publish my
book! - Western finors T Y
"Yes, 1am always concerned about my mail
ot g 1 detinaton o being
Eampered with." - Cook County Ja, inois
““Pim writing my 7 chapter of my book, but
ey L e maleotios 31 Send
outh* Gook County Jai, inos
Lastly, is there anything you
think e on the outside or the
general public need to know
about censorship, reading,
books, education, or your life
inside? Feel free fo write as
much as you want. We will
read and value every word.
"I think there i a ot that I could say about
this place that would shock and repiise
s placetht would shock and epul
‘eople i they even believed it. There is so
Phuth evil i here and the corruption is
grear, but there are good people that work
ere and there are good men and women
tTapped in herc. Wé are human bengs, ot
Jemons. The world cast us out and ighores
s whilewe are ot inchain, but we have
brains, families, love, and God to hold us
Shiough ™ Cook Couniysal linols
e symuch Lo people b
about their fellow incarcerated brothers and
meaningful way. In myexpme‘némd\mng
PRt Lnietn
ol st Brpprsti gl
B s
truly possible? Prisons are designed, for the
D o breate s dow ol
e e
on the wrist. IS that justice? Is that the Law
and Order? We can do better regarding
regarding thei incarcerated people, and
{hEY et trly rehabiftated - or the most
ot oy i st prson sysen.
e must redb one amendment, we most
remove one of it's clauses. We have to
Xewor the 13th Amendment becatise,
ekt whafmostpeopl believ, s not
abalish slavery. I we were to remove the
Elause i the 13th Amendment that allows
Slavery for the convietion of a crime, the
prison system would bea place. o tuly
Tehabiitate. Lo us finaly abotish Slavery in
SIS forms, fet's amend the 13th
Amendment "
Citizens out there need o know that just
because I've made.a mistake in my e, my
s still (should) exist I'm stillan
Afherican, a country that has a constitution
and preaches freedom, But et we are
feadfng the entire worid n incarceration! 1
{oureending this you're geting nvolued
Coep gorng SvoveRt et ot indhane
"Censorship Just keeps getting worse. Im
treated like an animal hére without any
rights. Since | have no contacts on the.
otitside 5 very hard for me to get books or
iterature. can use all donations. Piease
lelp.Met meknow ifyou even reclve this
back Thank You. Blessed be" - North Branch
¢, Maryland
"We don’t have what society s led to believe
wedo - Reading material, health care, legal
access, and just respect as humans.Jails
risons get away whh lots of misdeed,both
llegal & unconstitutional. See law sults -
state & federal faciities." - Marion, linois
PRISON BANNED BOOKS WEEK
single state prison systems censor more books
than all state schools and libraries combined
Literature gets banned by prison mairoom
y
Staff quic
Tlipping through books as they
inspect the mail. These cursory judgments
sweep up medical books, drawing and art
books, popular magazins, history books and
literature of all kinds, Prison censorship
prevents people in jails and prisons from
reading, ()
“The third, annual Prison Banned Books Week
‘will focs on the exponential rise of “approved
vendor” policies. Denying independent
booksellers and limiting places to purchase
books, sometimes o a single, bookseller,
“approved vendor” policics are being passed
around the country under the speciots claim
that mail is the primary conduit of contraband.
PrisonBannedBooksWeek.org
The American Library .
Association has come out with
updated 2024 standards:
Library services and resources should be
regularly accssble and relovant fo all
individuals who are incarcerated or
detaed rgardiessofcisody e e
of carceral facility, or informational need.
rofessional library staff should make all
redsonable efforts to provide consistent
access to both the physical library space
and library services through institutional
mail, book carts,or other effective access
points where library services can be
readily reached by the most facility
residents. Access fo ibrary services and
materials should extend beyond the
physical space of the main library,
including all restricted access unifs such as
administrative seqregation, hospital
units, and crisis beds.
Best Practices for E-reader
Tablets in Carceral Institutions
Produced by the Coalition for Carceral
Access to Literature and Learning
(CALL) with 58 partner groups. Write us
for the full version, here are some
excerpis:
“E-readers must supplement, not
xeplace, access to physical books in
carceral institutions or facilities...
Books ordered through or donatéd by
prison bogkorganizations and outside
ok, vendors must also remain
accessible or available... Access to
digital books must not be revoked as a
diSciplinary measure: Access to
literatureis a right, not a privilege... E-
reader vendors mut reject pay-per-
use models.. E-readers cannot be held
up as expanding access to literature for
incarcerated people if the cost of
urchasing a tablet is prohibitive for a
large portion of the incarcerated
population. E-reader vendors and
carceral institutions must provide free
access to digital books that are already
a part of the public domain. E-reader
vendors must make content that meets
the literary and educational needs of
incarcerated populations, including by
developing e-catalog collections in’
consultation with libtarians, educators,
and formerly incarcerated people. E-
reader vendors must make content in
multiple languages available and be
responsive t6 the cultural needs of
incarcerated populations.
UN Standard Minimum Rules
for Treatment of Prisoners
(Mandela Rules):
“Every prison shall have a library for
the use o allcategorics of prsoriers,
adequately stocked with both
recreational and instructional books,
and prisoners shall be encouraged to'
make full use of it.”
1. Inno circumstances may restrictions
or disciplinary sanctions amount to
torture or other cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment.
‘The following practices, in particular,
shall be prohibited:
(2) Indefinite solitary confinement;
(b) Prolonged solitary confinement;
() Placement of a prisoner in a dark or
constantly lt cell;
() Corporal punishment or the
reduction of a prisoner's diet or
drinking water;
(e) Collective punishment.
Prolonged solitary confinement shall
refer to'solitary confinement for a time
period in excess of 15 consecutive days.
Wite us for free copies of these standards!
a
Write us for free copies of these zines
about fighting prison censorship!
END BOOK BANS &
MAIL CENSORSHIP at
COOK COUNTY JAIL
‘Midwest Books to Prisoners.
Campaign Against
Prison Censorship
and Book Banning
DERLLS
PRISON MAIL
DIGITIZATION
THE FINAL STRAW
RADIO SHOW
12:12-21
:lcuuvlllvlu.‘“
Legal Resources to Fight Censorship also available upon reque:
Lenientn Theory, Dum i Fact:Piso,Spech,and Srutiny” by David M, Shapro
“Tumer'ssurmeuntaple Rucden: A Thtee: el Survey of risener Fee Speeen
Clims" b by Kten Sehnell
M Chgpel S ekt o commicte it the Qutside wond
i Py il s A AR aod uPID e B st prisons” (1/2022)
VersInstiin o Jusice: N and Mot Pons e Banming Mall(33022)
Filter Mag: The Prison Mail Bans Aren't About Fentanyl. They te About Understaffing, (/9/2024)
N TO SENDER:
BETUEN 12 Baneorshie
O
=
The Insider’s
Don’t Step Back, .
Fight Back! Guide to
e Jailhouse Law
ki
== g A Publication of Prison Book Program
=) 2024
What it feels fike 4,
G dleal with c:,:c!‘u':fyffiu
w o) wailroom
A
7 A
.‘
LN SESARTUENT OF CORRECTIONS |
Notice 4f Unauthorized Item(s) Not Permitted \
linois River Correctional Center
HOUSING UNIT
ikt o forms, o phon cards or gt cars.
it gyl o ancvr i i
o sporord. S0 you caunalr ot sl
No ormativn st pinots prtaing o cims of e o ottt ic may comprorse e
secarty of e facity and no ook pots.
1 N SoclSecurty Do Licans 0. car;Schoo o mpoymen . o f ry o o
0 Bamned Puicaton pr Sovngkd P, Reviw Comite: i
Money vouchris i
IF YOU DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS NOTICE WITHIN 30 DAYS, THE ITEMS WILL BE DESTROYED.
ndicate ne of the following:
O 1 nave provided a stamped, adressed evelape 1 rtum e e (ATTACH FORM TO QUTSIDE
‘OF RESPONSE) ITEM MUST BE RETURNED TO SENDER UNLESS TOLD OTHERWISE.
1 1wish o have he aboe sted ems desoyed.
\ O om
Be adise, ifyou o ot et s form, th above fem wilbe disposed o i accordance with DR 501,200,
Do
Yellow Moo
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