As the United States and its free citizens hurl through the second decade of the 21st century, most of its ample prison population is solidly rooted in the final decade of the 20th, with regards to email. While inmates in some prisons have had limited access to email since as far back as 2005, when the messages would be printed out and included with other mail for review and distribution, most are limited to old fashioned snail mail. But more recently an increasing number of prisoners have been allowed to send and receive messages through an officially-sanctioned service called CorrLinks. The Wild Hunt posed the question: how has this impacted Pagan prison ministry?
CorrLinks, a web site run by Advanced Technologies Group of West Des Moines, Iowa, is an intermediary between prisoners and those on the outside with whom they wish to contact. Federal prisoners, as well as those incarcerated in Iowa, may apply to use the system, but can be rejected for any reason, including having used a computer to commit crime. The inmate can only send messages to people on an approved contact list, which is populated with email addresses provided by the inmate. Those addresses are vetted and included only after the address owner consents. Prisoners can use designated computers, which have no internet access, to receive and send emails at a cost of five cents per minute. Incoming and outgoing messages are reviewed by prison officials, as is the case with any other mail to and from inmates.
Inquiries directed to CorrLinks customer service department about aspects of the service received unhelpful replies. Those questions, probing how inmate fees are set and whether the software itself provides monitoring tools, got a one-sentence reply: “You would need to contact facilities for that information.”
[Public Domain Photo]
What happened with that one correspondent could be indicative of a larger, underlying problem in prison ministry. Inmates have a lot of time on their hands, and a minister may be the only outside contact that the prisoner has. “Unfortunately, sometimes inmates write lengthy correspondences, and he became distraught/frustrated when his long emails went unanswered for days or weeks,” Faeron conceded. Eventually the prisoner broke off contact completely.
Long letters are typical on paper as well, and as a rule Faeron spends his time visiting in person, rather than responding to correspondence. However, he did say that email is a good way to write without having to reveal one’s address to an inmate.
That time component is something that Ashleen O’Gaea, with Mother Earth Ministries, mitigates by going old school. She doesn’t use email, just the postal service. She said that “a paper letter can be considered for some time before an answer’s made, whereas e-mail time tends to be limited, so, it seems to me, there’s less time for thought to go into the process.” She also finds paper letters easier to refer to while writing a response, and harder to alter without detection than email.
While CorrLinks is the only sanctioned system for federal prisons, there are other similar systems. Reverend Dave Sassman, a member of Circle Sanctuary, said that he uses JPay to email inmates in his state of Indiana. That system charges Sassman a per-page fee for emails, but he was unaware if inmates also must pay. Typically prisoners don’t get anything without paying for it out of their commissary accounts, which must be funded by people who are not incarcerated. Even basic toiletries like toothbrushes and soap may not be provided to an inmate with a zero balance. It is likely that JPay users do get charged on both ends.
The prisons in the United States might be slowly approaching the 21st century, but Pagan ministers don’t appear to be in any rush to adopt electronic communication with inmates. At this point, CorrLinks and similar services seem poised to collect fees for the right to keep in touch using a method that is taken for granted by free people, and Pagan ministers, in particular, don’t see it as a useful tool for improving their work.
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Those fees are terrifying.
I have used the system and find it a convenient way to confirm meeting times, etc. *However* I recently learned that the SCDOC considers this grounds to ban a volunteer from a prison. That policy is being challenged, but it’s too soon to see where things will go. I’ve also found the CorrLinks system to be dated, cranky and with poor to no customer service.
Oh, and the fees are quite minimal.
Even prisoners who qualify for paid work make less than $2/hr. $.05/minute is $3/hr. No, the fees are not minimal. Not to prisoners, who often come from poverty to begin with and don’t have money in their accounts or anyone who can afford to put it there. It’s not minimal.
Oh, and that $2/hr is the very high end. For those in federal prisons who don’t qualify for outside work, and have to work in prisoner maintenance, try $0.12-$0.40/hr. A prisoner — one who likely has few computer and typing skills, and is likely to take a long time to type an email — can use up an hour’s pay in three minutes.
Minimal my ass.
This is really abhorrent, I wish we could treat people who have made mistakes in life as you know, people. It costs an hour of pay for them to email a pastor? And having the computer on doesn’t really cost the jail that much? Smh…
Not to mention all of the innocent people who go to prison, tricked into bad plea bargains or worse.
The role of racism in law enforcement, to name just one systematic injustice, is really appalling.
You’re making a good point, about the discrepancy between prison pay and fees.
Why make it harder for Holli to see your point by using such personal language, Mad? (ie, “Minimal my ass.”) One piece of good advice I’ve heard is the adage, quit fighting when you’re ahead… When you have just made an important point, why obscure it with attitude?
I ask because I think it is an important point, and I hope everyone who reads it takes it in. Because, seriously–you’re quite right that it matters!
I choose my language intentionally. Do not give me advice on it. You are not saying anything that other condescending people haven’t said before.
That’s for articles like this that I like TWH, I’d never have thought about this matter hadn’t Terence written about it.
This is the first I’ve heard of this service.
I’ve been working with the Wiccan circle in San Quentin for about 1.5 years and they do not have email. Only for staff, not for inmates. SQ is a state prison, not federal as you’ve discussed. Further, ppl like me who come to the prison to conduct or assist with religious ceremonies cannot simultaneously correspond with any inmate. It’s one or the other. Were I to write to an inmate, I would lose my ‘beige card’ which authorizes me to come into the prison for these services. Religious volunteers are required to work under the sponsorship of a staff chaplain, in my case, the Native American chaplain.
There is, however, a prison newspaper and some kind of electronic announcement method (lighted signs in dining rooms and different sections of the prison) for updates on what’s happening around the prison (ball games, Shakespeare performances, gospel choir, etc.). They’re not personal, of course. My NA sponsor is supposed to submit my announcements about when I’m coming and what we’ll be doing, such as celebrating a sabbat; however, I’m not sure, based on what the inmates in our circle tell me, that what I give him actually makes it to that calendar. I’m working on contacting both the newspaper and the other medium for making announcements.
I recently attended a powwow inside San Quentin (report forthcoming) where an inmate photographer was provided with a camera to take photos for the prison newspaper, so I’m pretty sure I’ll manage some kind of contact. I’ve found prison bureaucracy to be opaque, inconsistent, and unreliable.
It seems that practically everything having to do with inmates bears a fee. If and when an inmate phones from a prison, the charges are on the recipient’s bill and they are ridiculously inflated. I have never accepted any such call, though now and then I get one. Patrick McCollum has stories about astronomical phone charges for inmate calls.
Word of caution for anyone considering Pagan prison ministry: Check with your state to be sure if you begin with a correspondence and then consider entering the institution as a volunteer. Generally, you cannot have an inmate correspondent and also serve inside.
I’ve begun a series of posts about my experience working in prison, five so far, here: http://witchesandpagans.com/pagan-studies-blogs/witch-at-large/creating-sacred-space-with-pagan-prison-inmates-i.html
That’s neat Macha! I’ll definitely read those posts of yours!