JUDGE FINDS SHERIFF'S LIMITS ON JAIL MAIL UNCONSTITUTIONAL
By Miraim Raftery
May 18, 2015 (San Diego) – Back in 2012, San Diego Sheriff Bill Gore sought to stop drugs and weapons from being smuggled into county jails in envelopes. So the Sheriff imposed a ban on mail to inmates, allowing only postcards or emails—no hand-written letters from loved ones. An exception was allowed for inmates to receive letters from their attorneys, however.
But now a federal judge has ordered the Sheriff to suspend enforcement of the postcard-only policy by May 21st. The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Lorenz comes in response to a lawsuit filed by Prison Legal News, which alleged that the policy violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution.
Prison Legal News filed suit in 2014 after the Sheriff’s Department refused to deliver Prison Legal News to San Diego County Jails after the post card policy was imposed.
NBC news reports that Sheriff’s spokesperson Jan Caldwell says the department is in the process of “reinstating the mail procedures we had prior to the postcard-only policy.”
So local inmates will soon be able to receive love letters and other correspondence that’s been banned for the past three years.