By Jason Renard Walker
Starting July 17 2023 general mail from the public to Texas prisoners will have to be sent to their new digital mail processing center.
From there it will be read, scanned and digitally sent to the prisoners securus tablet within three business days. There is no limit on the amount of mail that can be sent to prisoners through this route. Any sender that wishes to have their own photos, greeting cards and mail sent back to them must include a self addressed stamped envelope that covers the cost of items being returned. It is unknown how companies, that sell photos or require that prisoners fill out a brochure, or sign a contract, are supposed to send mail.
The Powledge unit, Polunsky unit, Bill Clements unit, Coffield unit, Plane unit, Garza West unit, Allred unit, Halbert unit, Robertson unit and East Texas ISF are the first units this rule effect. With other units being added to the list in the weeks to come.
Units that don’t have securus tablets will allow prisoners to receive an unlimited amount of black and white copies of photos, letters, and greeting cards from the public. Legal mail, Media mail, books and magazine subscriptions must still be sent directly to the unit.
Just as disability, social security and veterans checks should be. Any general mail sent directly to the unit in effect will be returned to the sender.
If you have friends or loved ones at the above mentioned units, starting July 17 2023 please send snail mail to this address:
Texas Dept Of Criminal Justice
Full name/TDCJ#
Unit name
P.O. Box 660400
Dallas, Tx 75266-0400
THE CAUSE AND EFFECT
“While no single effort can completely stop the transmission of dangerous contraband,we feel that every measure we can take to improve health and safety in our facilities is worth adopting”- TDCJ spokesman
After the 2020 pandemic temporarily shut down all visitors from seeing their loved ones in person-even if behind plexiglass – the flow of contraband in prison, such as cellphones and methamphetamines didn’t slow down a bit.
Despite TDCJ claiming that prisoner visitation was the main contributing factor, they seem to shun dialog that blames staff. In an effort to further finger the public as being responsible for contraband being smuggled in prison, they have followed suit of other state prisons and made it illegal for the public to send correspondence directly to Texas prisoners.
Not only does this place another barrier between prisoners being able to touch, see and smell things handled by their friends and families. It further places a wedge between the lack of trust TDCJ has in citizens, and the amount of indifference it shows towards unrestricted staff corruption and increasing amounts of violence from its own actions.
Not only will this new rule have no effect on contraband being smuggled into prison, it increases the amount of bribes being offered to staff, raises the price of drugs and other contraband smuggled in through more expensive routes. While making the environments more dangerous, territorial and violently protective of money hungry staff that will take bribes from anyone with money.
It is obvious that TDCJ has no interest in actually stemming the flow of contraband finding its way into prisons, or else they’d use easy methods such as allowing their drug and cellphone sniffing dogs to smell each staffer as they enter the prison, or sniff around the mail before it is placed in the mail room.
While these methods are effective, in fact they are too effective and will slack the justification they use to further separate the amount of contact prisoners have with their communities, which is both therapeutic and rehabilitative. Look at data a year from now and see how violence and drug smuggling has increased.
Jason Renard Walker 1532092
Powledge Unit
P.O. Box 660400
Dallas, Tx 75266-0400
Received by email.