Behind the Walls: A Guide for Families and Friends of Texas Prison Inmates

10. Mail

65 Inmates in TDCJ are allowed to receive mail from anyone in the world, without any restrictions on amounts of First Class personal mail. The key word here is “personal.” As long as there are no enclosures in mail to an inmate—no stamps, cash, pressed flowers, gold chains, etc.—the inmate will be given that letter. The actual, written content of the letter may be cause for denial, but I’ll get to that in a minute. The liberty allowed Texas inmates with their personal mail is not extended to packages. It is easier to say what inmates can receive than to list what they cannot. Inmates can receive two types of packages: 1) Books or magazines, which must come from the publisher or bookstore. This means that you must order them from the publisher and have the publisher mail them directly to the inmate; or you must buy them at the bookstore yourself, give the bookstore the inmate’s name, number, and address, and have the bookstore mail the books and magazines directly to the inmate. Do not try to mail books directly to the inmates. TDCJ mailrooms have a list of approved bookstores—if a package of books has a mail Chapter ten 66 Chapter Ten made-up address and label, it will not appear on the approved list and will be rejected and returned. I do not know if TDCJ will provide the list of approved bookstores to people requesting it. If you wish, call the agency in Appendix G that is listed as Offender Mail Service, which is in charge of inmate correspondence. However, from my understanding , any bookstore or publishing house that is legitimate and solvent need only contact TDCJ in order to be verified as such. In other words—if you buy books at a reputable store or order them from a reputable publishing company, TDCJ will accept the books. The content of the books may make them objectionable , but that is another matter. 2) Inmates may receive stationery, which includes legal pads, typing paper, ruled writing paper, and blank envelopes. The stationery must also come from an established bookstore, office supply, or similar shop, or it will be rejected. You can even order personalized stationery—matching paper and envelope from a company and have that mailed to an inmate—although that’s a little too cute for most male inmates. That’s it. Don’t even try anything else.You can not mail food, clothes, watches, photo albums, typewriters—no packages whatsoever. TDCJ makes no exceptions. There are two items you can include with regular mail that will usually make it through with little hassle—photographs or clippings from newspapers. Use good sense. A photo of friends with their babies will not be a problem, but a friend obviously smoking a joint and flashing a hand sign may not be allowed in, and may subject the inmate to close scrutiny as a suspected gang member. Both incoming and outgoing mail is randomly read and scanned. About the only way an inmate will not be allowed to correspond with someone is if they discuss criminal activity, which is pretty stupid if you know your mail is being read. Persons who receive mail from inmates and do not want those inmates to write them can notify the warden or other TDCJ official. The inmate will be ordered to not write that person, and his mail will be monitored. If he continues to write that person, he will be disciplined Mail 67 and be subject to criminal prosecution. Regular mail is mailed out unsealed by inmates and sealed by mailroom employees after scanning or reading. Special mail—to government officials, lawyers, to the media, or to TDCJ officials—may be sealed by inmates. Incoming special mail is opened in the presence of the inmate and checked for physical contraband but not read by the mailroom staff. Or at least, that is the set policy. There is no way for an inmate to prove if an employee has interfered with a particularly anticipated letter from or to an attorney or journalist. I once wrote an article on gang-related violence for a Texas newspaper doing a series on prison violence. When the article appeared, the entire series was sent to me by the newspaper as a courtesy. The package was clearly marked “Media mail,” and I should have been called to the mailroom and...