The timely delivery of legal and other special mail is of paramount importance to inmates and it is mandated in BOP policy. Yet FCI Thomson and other federal prisons do not follow the rules or the law.
Thomson’s Institutional Supplement (TOM 5800.16G), says: “Special/legal mail will be separated from general correspondence by mail room staff. This mail will be identified by closely looking at the front of all envelopes received to ensure each meets the guidelines (contains appropriate return addresses and special mail markings) as outlined in Program Statement 5265.14, Correspondence.” Program Statement 5265.14 states that, “Special mail also includes correspondence received from the following: President and Vice President of the United States, attorneys, members of Congress, embassies and the Department of Justice…including U.S. attorneys, state attorney generals, prosecuting attorneys, governors, and U.S. and state courts. For incoming correspondence to be processed under the special mail procedures the sender must be adequately identified on the envelope, and the front of the envelope must be marked “Special Mail — Open only in the presence of the Inmate.” That seems pretty straightforward.
Unfortunately, the rules governing legal mail are violated day after day here. Inmates are required to wait weeks and sometimes months to receive legal mail that the court is waiting on. Jeopardizing court-imposed deadlines for response can undermine someone’s entire case. Court correspondence is also confidential and subject to attorney-client privilege, yet staff routinely violate it by opening and copying it.
Think this is a minor problem? You wouldn’t if it was your case and you were separated from your spouse, children or family. In just one unit of 100 inmates at FCI Thomson, of 10 pieces of legal mail, nine are not handled properly. That is a 90% failure rate, which means either they are doing it on purpose or it is just total incompetence.
Keep in mind as well that many prisoners here are denied access to email to stay in touch with family and are allowed only 300 phone minutes a month, 15 minutes at a time. Try having a detailed conversation with a loved one in 15 minutes. If someone doesn’t get free minutes from programming and mail takes weeks to be delivered, communication stops. Family ties die and PTSD and major depression kicks in. Hopelessness takes over and suicide happens.
Yet we have virtually no way to fight back The administrative remedy process takes months to complete and inmates have to pay for the mailing to each successive level of management, who often just ignore you or repeat the lies used at the lower level.