Alabama prisons began scanning all incoming personal mail last October, a trend aimed at stopping drugs from reaching incarcerated people. But a new analysis argues the policy is failing, cutting family ties while doing little to reduce drug use.

Wanda Bertram, a communication strategist with the Prison Policy Initiative, said incarcerated people told researchers the policy has not worked.

"One of the questions we asked," she said, "was, 'Is this reducing or ameliorating dangerous drug use?' And someone in Alabama said, 'Has it reduced drug use?' And then in caps, 'LOL, not in the smallest way.'"

Bertram said when Alabama made more than 100 contraband arrests last year, a third of offenders were corrections officers. She argued the state is scapegoating families instead of expanding drug treatment or holding staff accountable.

Alabama Department of Corrections officials have defended the policy, stating that moving toward a "paperless system" prevents drugs from being sprayed onto physical mail and increases efficiency.

Bertram said the policy also privatizes prison communication. Mail is often sent to out-of-state processing centers run by for-profit companies, pushing families toward paid electronic messaging services.

"Companies that are offering mail scanning are not only profiting from the contract they have," she said, "they're also profiting because mail scanning ... creates a delay in the mail, because scans are just not the same as receiving an actual physical letter that you can hold and keep forever."

Incarcerated people lose access to scanned mail if their tablet breaks or if they are placed in solitary confinement. Advocates are calling on Alabama to expand medication-assisted treatment instead of eliminating physical mail.

Source: Public News Service