Board Tightens Laws on Prison Correspondence
Prison inmates in Texas will no longer be able to receive sexually explicit material in the mail, and their letters to the news media and government officials can now be read by officials.
The Texas Board of Criminal Justice adopted the new rules in the first overhaul of prison mail policy in 21 years.
Gary Johnson, executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said the aim is to “strike an appropriate balance between an offender’s privilege to correspond with the outside world” and the prison system’s need to prevent inappropriate mail.
Publications such as National Geographic, artistic materials and medical books might be allowed “on a case-by-case basis.”
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