116 Federal Prisons in the U.S. provide e-mail access

The Facebook page reads: "We are inmates in the federal system who are looking for someone to talk to. We have e-mail capability so we may chat."

A few caveats: "You must be educated and (non-ghetto) please." Oh, and only women need reply.

Welcome to 21st-Century prison life, a world where those on the inside can communicate with those on the outside via cyberspace.

As of this month, all 116 federal prisons in the U.S. provide e-mail access to qualifying inmates who pay 5 cents per minute to use the computer.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons reads all the e-mails, and recipients have to agree to be contacted.


Internet access, though, remains off-limits.

Some states are following suit.

Kansas, for example, lets inmates use e-mail, online banking and videoconferencing with friends and family. Washington state has installed e-mail kiosks in several large prisons. And North Dakota lets inmates e-mail those on pre-approved lists.

Michigan uses a program called JPay, which lets outsiders e-mail inmates. But prisoners cannot reply electronically.

"We still have to ensure facility security," said John Cordell, a Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman, pointing out that full-scale e-mail "is not viable for us."

Maybe in the future, he said. But for now, snail mail, pay phones and personal visits will have to do.
Nearly 122,300 U.S. inmates qualify to use e-mail

Prisoners have been trying to find ways to communicate with the outside world for years, even secreting smartphones into footballs tossed over security fences.

But now, federal prisons have another high-tech -- and sanctioned -- option to stay in touch.

This spring, the Federal Bureau of Prisons officially made e-mail available in all 116 of its prisons, with nearly 122,300 inmates -- more than half the federal prison population -- already qualifying for the program. The idea is to help inmates keep ties with the community and family members by letting them talk online.

Of course, inmates trying to communicate with the outside world isn't new. Cell phones and smartphones are getting smuggled inside by the thousands.

But prison officials say e-mail offers a link that can be easily monitored. The messages going in and out are screened. The recipients are pre-approved, and only those who agree to be e-mailed can get messages.

"The Bureau of Prisons has taken a lot of pains to make sure that any security concerns are taken care of. If the public is scared that some inmate is going to be stalking in cyberspace, that is not going to happen," said Elizabeth Kelley, co-chairwoman of the Corrections Committee for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Kelley, a supporter of the prison e-mail system, said it lets inmates go over matters with their lawyers without requiring a visit. It also helps prisoners conduct limited job searches, reaching out to employers who may be willing to hire ex-offenders.

"We know that maintaining ties to the community is absolutely essential to the re-entry process," Kelley said.

No tax dollars are used for the program, known as TRULINCS -- Trust Fund Limited Inmate Computer System. The program is funded by profits from inmate purchases of commissary products and telephone services. Inmates are charged 5 cents per minute to use the computer.

Based on recent Internet activity, inmates are doing plenty of cybertalking.
Tweets from Riddle

In state and federal prisons nationwide, cell phones and smartphones are regularly smuggled in -- in some cases getting tossed over fences -- leaving the corrections community scrambling to stay on top of the problem.

Inmates are texting, tweeting and posting on Facebook, thumbing their noses at rules banning Internet use.

The ever-defiant Detroit political consultant Sam Riddle continues to update his Twitter page from federal prison, most recently posting photos of himself and fellow inmates in North Carolina, where he is serving a 37-month bribery sentence.

In California, notorious cult leader Charles Manson was caught twice in recent months with a cell phone in his prison cell.

In Georgia, a group of inmates used smartphones to organize a strike, triggering lockdowns at four facilities in December.

In South Carolina, a guard was shot six times in September after an inmate used a smuggled cell phone to order a hit on the man at his home.
Inside Michigan prisons

It is those kinds of stories that keep the Michigan Department of Corrections Internet-free.

MDOC spokesman John Cordell said Michigan hasn't yet decided to jump on the prison e-mail bandwagon. In addition to the federal prison system, a handful of states are allowing inmates to e-mail family, friends and their lawyers.

"Michigan has a pretty strict Internet-based policy. There are no network connections inside the prison setting that a prisoner could utilize," said Cordell, noting any kind of Internet use could jeopardize inmate and public security, even tightly monitored e-mail.

Instead, Michigan inmates communicate using the pay phone, written letters or actual visits at the prison, he said.

There's also JPay, a system that allows outsiders to send an e-mail to the prison a printed copy is delivered to the inmate. But the prisoner can't respond via e-mail.

"It's one of the things that ultimately we may consider," Cordell said of full-scale e-mail. "But right now, it's not something that's viable for us."

That's too bad, say prisoner advocates and criminal defense lawyers.

They say prison e-mail has several benefits: it's easier to monitor and read than regular mail, it's cheaper than pay phones for inmates, and it helps prepare inmates for re-entry by keeping them in touch with the outside world.

"That's a lot more reasonable than them using the phones," said criminal defense attorney Anthony Chambers, who has several clients in federal prison and views prison e-mail as "extremely helpful."

Chambers is serving as standby counsel to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian national charged with trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Dec. 25, 2009.
Abdulmutallab is detained at a federal prison in Milan, but he is among those who do not have access to e-mail.

Neither does former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who is in state prison in Jackson on a probation violation stemming from the text message scandal that drove him from office.

Visit www.sureshotbooks.com for inmate books, magazine's, newspapers & gifts

Stats You Should Know About Our Prison System

America certainly has a unique stance on crime and punishment. Some actions that would cause the typical American to go to prison for a significant period of time aren’t even considered crimes in most other countries around the world.


As a result, we’ve accumulated some interesting, sometimes alarming statistics showing just how crowded we’ve made our prison system. The ones below describe the state of the system, especially compared to the rest of the world, and the social impact of our policies.

1. The U.S. has an incarceration rate of 743 per 100,000 people (2009): That’s the highest rate in the world, an astonishing fact that can’t be repeated enough. However, it should be noted that crime in the U.S. in general has decreased over the last 20 years. For example, from 1980 to 2009, the murder rate decreased from 10.2 per 10,000 inhabitants to 5.0 in 2009; the violent crime rate decreased from 596.6 per 10,000 inhabitants to 429.4; and the robbery rate decreased from 251.1 per 10,000 inhabitants to 133. Now, whether or not the improvements are a result of harsher punishment has yet to be proven. For comparison, from 1925 to 1975, the crime rate stayed at about 110 per 100,000 people, excluding those kept in state and local jails.


2. The U.S. houses a quarter of the world’s prisoners (2008): The U.S. population is 311,341,000, roughly 4.5 percent of the world’s population, and in 2008, it kept 2.3 million people behind bars. China, the world’s most populous country with 1,339,725,000 people, kept 1.6 million people behind bars the same year, though it should be noted that it had hundreds of thousands of people in administrative detention. During America’s younger years, it was regarded around the world as more relaxed on criminal justice, hence the Wild West reputation. But as the population has grown, particularly in cities, we’ve taken more drastic measures to control crime.


3. The U.S. houses more inmates than the top 35 European countries combined (2010): Europe, which has a denser population than the U.S., is well-below the U.S. when it comes to incarceration rates. In England and Wales, for example, 139 people are imprisoned per 10,000, one of the highest rates in Western Europe. Harsher sentencing in recent years is blamed for the rise in prison population in the U.K. Nevertheless, it pales in comparison to America’s rate; only Easter Europe’s Belarus comes close, with a rate of 385 people imprisoned per 10,000.


4. The federal prison population has more than doubled since 1995 (2010): Because the federal system is generally stricter than state systems and has expanded its jurisdiction over certain offenses, it has seen a drastic increase in the amount of people it houses. In particular, an increase in immigration cases since 1994 has been a main contributor, as they accounted for 28.2 percent of all federal sentencing in 2008, for example.


5. The number of state prisoners declined by 4,777 from December 2008 to January 2010: Possibly due to the recession, many have attributed the decline in state prisoners to large state budget deficits, which have forced states to release inmates to save money. However, according to the Pew Center on the States, the decline actually started just before the economic downturn due to a reduction in the amount of people sent to prison for new crimes, while the number of people released from prison increased. Of course, prison rates vary from state to state.


6. The most significant decreases in state prison populations from 2008 to 2009 occurred in California (-4,257), Michigan (-3,260) and New York (-1,699): Overall, 26 states saw a decrease in prison population. California led them all, as the state has made an effort to cut the number of low-risk parolees returning to prison by expanding the use of intermediate sanctions. Overcrowding has been a problem for California; so much so that a deferral court in 2009 ordered the state to reduce its prison population by 40,000 in just two years. Michigan has cut its prison population by decreasing parole revocation rates, improving its reentry planning and supervision, and reducing the number of inmates who serve more than 100 percent of their minimum sentence.


7. The most significant increases in state prison populations from 2008 to 2009 occurred in Pennsylvania (+2,122), Florida (+1,527) and Indiana (+1,496): During the last three decades, Pennsylvania’s prison population has expanded from 8,243 to 51,326. In recent years, the increase can be attributed to former Gov. Ed Rendell’s 2008 moratorium on paroles in response to the killing of a Philadelphia police officer by a paroled felon. The state also transferred prisoners out of state due to overcrowding. In Florida’s case, some attribute the rise to legislators failing to cut corrections spending like in many of the states that saw reductions in their prison populations.


8. Those who have spent time in prison earn 40 percent less annually (2010): Universally, crime is associated with people from poor economic backgrounds who have few options in life. In many cases, those who’ve been incarcerated grew up around family members and friends who suffered the same fate. Their ability to escape the rut decreases greatly after their first offense, as their annual earnings are almost slashed in half because many employers refuse to hire them. Most unsettling is the fact that more than half of those incarcerated were the primary financial providers for their children.


9. One in every 28 children has an incarcerated parent (2010): A quarter of a century ago, one in every 125 children had an incarcerated parent. The rise, of course, can be attributed to the implementation of harsher laws for lesser crimes; two-thirds of today’s incarcerated parents committed non-violent offenses. The above stat is one of the most disconcerting of all U.S.-related prison stats because common sense dictates that a child’s chances of growing up as a productive, law-abiding adult are greater when both of their parents play significant roles in their life.


10. More than one in three young black men without a high school diploma are in prison (2010): Additionally, more black men without a high school diploma are incarcerated than employed. As previously mentioned, it’s more difficult to secure a job once a person has spent time in prison, further limiting the options of the already less fortunate. In fact, black men earn 44 percent less after they’ve been incarcerated, four percent less than the average for all races/ethnicities.

Students investigate staples threat, U.S. Justice lawyers visit

MONCKS CORNER -- At the Berkeley County jail, God's Word is the only one allowed.

Three lawyers with the U.S. Justice Department arrived at the jail Monday morning to investigate a complaint that inmates have been denied reading material other than the Bible.

Sandy Senn, an attorney representing Berkeley County jail, talks about the four Charleston School of Law students and one USC student Monday who are going through more than 40,500 documents at the facility in Moncks Corner. The students are looking for proof of damage by inmates using staples brought into the jail through letters or reading material.
Photo by Sarah Bates


Inmates at the Hill-Finklea Detention Center used staples and toothbrushes to make tattoo needles.


While the attorneys toured the Hill-Finklea Detention Center, specifically seeking out non-Christian inmates with no interest in the paperback Bibles allowed inside, another group of visitors started their work in one of the jail's hallways.

County officials hired four Charleston School of Law students and a University of South Carolina student to comb through 40,500 files to show that inmates used staples to cause harm in or damage the jail.

Monday's dramatic inquiries showed the level of interest in the American

Civil Liberties Union's lawsuit against the jail, Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne DeWitt and other officials, a case that calls the Bible-only policy unconstitutional.

DeWitt noted that, unlike prisoners serving sentences, most county jail inmates only spend a day or two at the jail before trial. But he said he would work with the Justice Department.

"However, we do not have federal funding and we simply cannot and will not make our jail a Marriott," DeWitt added.

In fact, the jail continues operating well over capacity, sometimes at triple its intended population of 154. A sparkling $10 million expansion originally scheduled to come online more than a year ago still awaits state approval and necessary funding.

The ACLU's lawsuit came about after the jail turned away mail, including the Prison Legal News. Sandy Senn, an attorney representing the jail in the lawsuit, walked through the detention center Monday showing the damage that staples binding the publication can cause.

Inmates can jam staples in their toilets' flushing mechanisms and flood out their cells. They can use them to destroy $900 locks and to manipulate wiring. And they can straighten them into needles for makeshift tattoo guns.

Senn and a sheriff's sergeant showed some of those primitive instruments: A toothbrush and a pen, each with a staple sticking out of the base for tattooing, and more sophisticated version with a small ink well.

David Fathi, director of the ACLU's National Prison Project in Washington, called the staple argument "an after-the-fact rationale" and noted that the jail never mentioned staples in its original reason for rejecting Prison Legal News.

"It's unfortunate that the county is continuing to spend thousands of dollars to defend an indefensible policy," Fathi said.

He also noted that the jail still sold inmates legal pads which contained staples, even three months after the lawsuit's filing. Senn said jail officials, upon discovering the staples inside the pads, switched to a glue only brand.

A federal judge ordered that either jail officials or the ACLU review three years of inmate files to determine if staples posed problems. Senn showed the walk-in file room filled with the more than 40,500 manila folders that five students will spend the next two weeks perusing at a cost of $20 per hour.

Senn pointed out that the withheld mail, including Prison Legal News, primarily shows up at the jail unsolicited. She also said that jail officials met with local mosque leaders to ensure access to the Koran in addition to the Bible.

"We acknowledge that our written policy has been behind the times. ... But, in practice, we have been allowing a lot of religious reading materials in for a very long time," Senn said.

The case heads to court next month, when a judge will hear the ACLU's case for a temporary injunction which would require that the jail accept Prison Legal News and other publications.

SureShotBooks.com helps the relative to send books for prisoners directly online

Many new organizations have started working with the prisoners mental development and intellectual support in these recent few years. One of the pioneers in this field is definitely one of the renowned organization named SureShotBooks.

This company is associated with SureShot 2K family and started serving their consumers back in the year of 1990. This company, from the very beginning targeted a group of people for providing exclusive services.

Their subjects were, well, pretty exceptional i.e. the prisoners living in the jails. Sureshot wanted to work on the psychological developments and evaluations of the criminals taking part in correction programs in jails inside and outside the US. Another idea of this organization was to provide services to the relatives of the prisoners who want to help their relatives inside the jails by all means.

Sending books for prisoners is a great way to help those people who are actually suffering for their committed crimes. Relatives of the prisoners wanted to work really hard so that they can contribute to the improvement of the lives of their suffering relatives.

SureShot became very interested about serving them and opened an online store where a user can place order to send books for inmates. This way, the inmates are also getting indulged into some constructive acts and they get the chance to learn new things that improve their skills in different ways.

According to the criminal psychologists, helping the prisoners in the later days of correction becomes more difficult. However, in the beginning stage, the rate and extent of prognosis is way better.

In many cases, it has been seen that a person with better improvisation facilities and approaches has come up as a better human being than he ever was. Reading books is definitely the best intellectual act of an educated person. He can not only learn new things reading the verses in a book, but also get the opportunity to evaluate and evolve his talents through different activities.

A person is always full of potentials. If you can show a person the ways effectively, you will get the best result what you haven’t even expected from him. A criminal is nowhere different in this particular issue.

No doubt he has committed a great mistake for which he has been suffering from imprisonment, but he must get the second chance to improvise himself. If you want to provide the best second chance to him, go for good books for prisoners and send them to the sufferers inside the prison.

Books for prisoners or books for inmates don’t have an exclusive genre. All these books fall under a great and noble genre of literature books popular as inspirational books among the laymen.

SureShotBooks.com is working with these books since long. They house one of the greatest collection of inspirational books on earth than can really influence a person to improvise at personal level.

This company provides the best support you could ever expect. What you need to do is go and place your order online for the prisoners you want to send the books.

Family literacy: Get involved in your kids' learning

The latest trend in educational excellence is parental engagement. Schools are struggling with how to get parents to even come through the door, much less be truly involved. It is particularly difficult for adults who didn't have good experiences when they were students or those who are unfamiliar with the U.S. education system.

But a model for true parental engagement does exist, and it's been evolving and innovating for 30 years family literacy.

It is the most important step communities and schools can take to help parents leverage their important role into meaningful change and improvement. There are some who believe striving for parental involvement is too difficult a task and that parents are not interested in being involved in their children's education. This is far from the truth.

There are thousands of family literacy sites across the country where parents come to their children's school daily or weekly.

The family literacy model has transformed lives. For the past 20 years, the National Center for Family Literacy and Toyota have worked together to create, duplicate and innovate model laboratories of learning in 50 cities across the country. Multiple generations come together to learn, and the benefit extends to the entire family and community. Such is the case in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, where three different literacy programs dating to 1992 have been implemented.

Over the past 20 years, this partnership has improved the education and economic attainment of more than 1 million U.S. families. These families face some of the biggest hurdles to improving educational outcomes. Nearly 60 percent of the parents have less than a 10th grade education.

National research verifies the success of family literacy priorities and programs:

A mother's reading skill is the greatest determinant of her children's future academic success, outweighing other factors, such as neighborhood and family income (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development).

Children who have parents who help them learn to read score 10 points higher on standardized reading tests (NCFL research).

NCFL's work with Hispanic/Latino and other immigrant families in 30 cities through the Toyota Family Literacy Program has experienced extraordinary outcomes in English language and literacy development, parent involvement and engagement, literacy behaviors at home, and school-related attitudes.

The proven track record is here. The question then becomes: How do communities and schools effectively implement family literacy?

First, public and private partnerships should be leveraged to develop approaches that work. Private resources present the best opportunities to fuel innovation. In addition, seed money from private sources encourages collaboration.

Second, existing resources must be focused on a family approach to education for Hispanic learners nationwide. Programs to help parents gain basic academic and English skills in the context of helping their children are proving to be successful with high participation among parents and promising results.

Third, strategies must be developed to increase parental leadership. Parental involvement is a key predictor of a child's success. However, parents who have less education are more likely to find schools intimidating. Taking the time for a phone call or visit can make all the difference.

Communication is the start toward comprehensive parental involvement. Ongoing communication and teamwork between teachers and parents result in students who are continuously motivated and supported in their education.

Fourth, family literacy should be incorporated into existing services. Educational efforts should embrace an intergenerational approach by connecting family literacy to all child-serving agencies, such as school districts, Head Start programs and faith-based program initiatives.

By taking these steps, parents will become more active in their children's education, and a successful 21st-century community and work force will result.

Sharon Darling is president and founder of the National Center for Family Literacy.

By Sharon Darling

American Civil Liberties Union says jail in South Carolina is banning books 'for no good reason'

Prisoners at a jail in South Carolina are being denied any reading material other than the Bible, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging the "unconstitutional" policy at Berkeley County detention centre in Moncks Corner on behalf of monthly journal Prison Legal News last autumn. Last week a request by the US Department of Justice to stand alongside Prison Legal News as a plaintiff in the lawsuit was granted by a federal judge, and the ACLU has now asked a federal judge to block enforcement of a policy which it claims sees the jail's officials "unconstitutionally refusing to allow prisoners to receive any materials that contain staples or pictures of any level of nudity, including beachwear or underwear", effectively banning most books, magazines and newspapers.

Last year's lawsuit quotes an email from a member of staff at the prison to Prison Legal News, which said that "our inmates are only allowed to receive soft back bibles in the mail directly from the publisher. They are not allowed to have magazines, newspapers, or any other type of books". It charges that, since 2008, copies of Prison Legal News and books – including Protecting Your Health and Safety, which explains legal rights to inmates – sent to prisoners at the jail have been returned to sender. There is no library at the Berkeley County detention centre, the ACLU says, so that "prisoners who are incarcerated for extended periods of time have been deprived of access to magazines, newspapers and books – other than the Bible – for months or even years on end".

Officials at the jail responded to the ACLU lawsuit by saying that they only banned material containing staples and nudity. But the new ACLU motion to block this policy points out that legal pads containing staples were being sold at the jail. It claims that the no staples or nudity policy was "adopted post hoc and in response to this Case", and that it "eliminate[s] access to reading material almost as completely as the 'Bible only' rule".

"This is nothing more than an excuse by jail officials to ban books and magazines for no good reason," said David Shapiro, staff attorney with the ACLU national prison project. "There is no justification for denying detainees access to periodicals and in the process cutting them off from the outside world."

"Jail officials are looking for any excuse they can come up with to obscure the fact that they are unconstitutionally censoring materials sent to detainees," added Victoria Middleton, executive director of the ACLU of South Carolina. "And in so doing they are failing to serve the detainees and the taxpayers of South Carolina. Helping prisoners rehabilitate themselves and maintain a connection to the outside world by reading books and magazines is a key part of what should be our larger and fiscally prudent objective of reducing the number of people we lock up by lowering recidivism rates."

New Site Helps Inmates Blog from Behind Bars

Although inmates are denied Internet access in jail, they can still blog albeit in a different form. Their sketches, poems and musings circulate online after being posted by those outside of prison. There are dozens of these blogs, but inmates need tech-savvy friends or family to maintain them.

For those without such connections, Between the Bars offers an alternative. Charlie DeTar and Benjamin Mako Hill, fellows at MIT’s Center for Future Civic Media, conceived of a blogging platform for prisoners in 2008 after America reached an infamous milestone: one out of 100 U.S. adults were in jail.

To post on the blog, inmates send handwritten letters to Between the Bars, whose team then scans them and uploads them as PDFs. The group decided that scanning the letters, rather than transcribing them, would be the most efficient way to get them online.

They later realized that displaying the originals could also foster deeper personal connections. “You get a much clearer sense of somebody’s identity when you’re reading their real handwriting instead of standard computer font,” DeTar told TechNewsDaily.

A human connection

Once the letters are online, anyone can comment on them or create a transcript. To keep in communication, the bloggers receive paper copies of their posts, along with any comments they received. Currently, the team at Between the Bars is focused on generating more commenting activity.

“People are writing because they want to get a human connection, they want to talk to someone, so any comment they can get on a blog post is really helpful and really meaningful,” DeTar said.

The topics and tone of the letters vary widely. One recent letter, written by inmate William Medina, reads, “I am composing this communiqué from another world. A cold, distant, isolated planet. A sphere that consumes personalities and human identities.”

Another letter, written by inmate Timothy Muise, is typical in that it tells a story and begins: “Many years ago I was a sternman on my brother’s lobsterboat the Genesis III.”

Some prisoners choose not to write anything at all, and opt instead to submit sketches.


Blogging with purpose

The creators of Between the Bars said they have three main goals for the project. The first is helping inmates maintain their weaker, more casual connections.

“The more mundane connections that we tend to take for granted are actually the types of connections that help us to get by in life transitions,” DeTar said. “If we have to find a new job, generally your mother is not going to be able to find you a job. A friend of a friend might. That’s really the level of connection that we’re trying to support.”

As a space for self-expression, Between the Bars also encourages inmates to retain their individual identities. Since many prisons have a policy of referring to their populations as "offenders," this practice tends to reinforce a criminal self, while weakening the personal one, DeTar said.

In fact, sociological evidence shows that those who maintain self-perceptions separate from the system fare better when they are released. Thus, the act of blogging may help lower recidivism rates.

One letter at a time

DeTar and Hill also hope Between the Bars will help change general attitude toward those in jail.

By spreading “human stories from prison,” those on the outside can learn to sympathize with an otherwise stigmatized and underrepresented group. Empathy and awareness may prompt changes in behavior, such as the refusal of employers to hire those with criminal backgrounds.

“Yes, these people committed a crime, yes they made a mistake, but they’re still people,” said DeTar.

“They’re going to be doing much better in society if we can communicate with them, if we can help them socialize more and not just ignore them.”

By Paulina Reso, TechNewsDaily