Saturday, January 7, 2012

No More Mail for CA Inmates

Calif. judge to uphold postcard-only mail for inmates

Judge said she planned to deny a petition filed by several inmates over the ban enacted more than a year ago

By Kathleen Wilson
Ventura County Star
VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. — A judge said she intends to uphold a policy that prohibits Ventura County jail inmates from receiving mail in envelopes and says senders must use postcards.
In a tentative ruling issued Tuesday, Ventura County Superior Court Judge Rebecca S. Riley said she planned to deny a petition filed by several inmates over the ban enacted more than a year ago.
Managers in the Ventura County Sheriff's Office say they imposed the rule in October 2010 to promote safety and to prevent drugs, weapons and large amounts of cash from being smuggled into jail in envelopes.
But the ban drew protests from angry relatives and a legal challenge.
Chief Deputy Public Defender Michael McMahon petitioned for court relief in January 2011, calling the practice an 'exaggerated response' to security concerns.
He said the ban violates the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection because the prohibition exists only in Ventura County jails, not elsewhere in the state.
The ban originally applied to incoming and outgoing mail, but the Sheriff's Office ended the prohibition for outgoing mail last year.
On what she called the sole remaining issue of incoming mail, Riley ruled the Sheriff's Office had met the standards set out in a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court decision on prisoner communications.
Riley said the Sheriff's Office had provided legitimate reasons for the rule and had allowed alternative ways for inmates to exercise their rights.
She rejected the inmates' argument that the jail had a "ready alternative" for the practice because employees can inspect the mail.
"This 'alternative' is not reasonable due to the amount of time consumption for the jail to inspect each piece of incoming mail," she wrote. "A random inspection would not reach the same result."
Attorneys for the inmates and for the sheriff said they expect Riley to uphold the tentative ruling in a court order. The judge asked the Sheriff's Office to write a proposed order for the court's review by Jan. 13.
McMahon called the tentative ruling a setback but saidhe intends tofile a new case in state appeals court if the final order goes against him.
"We're not done," Mc-Mahon said. "I'm in for the long haul."
Jeffrey Held, a private Oxnard attorney representing the Sheriff's Office, said Riley ruled absolutely correctly.
A federal court in Arizona already has ruled that a postcard-only policy is constitutional and legal, he said.
"We were relying heavily on that precedent," Held said.
The judge said she had been leaning toward an exception for inmates serving longer than a year, under California's realignment law.
Starting last fall, the state began shifting to county jails lower-risk inmates who would have gone to state prison. Some may serve more than 10 years in jail, attorneys said. Riley, though, wrote that she has reconsidered that position on further review. "The court finds those 'musings' to have been illconsidered," she said. The inmates have argued that the rule causes them unnecessary distress and limits their ability to communicate with clergy members, doctors, family and friends. No other county jail or state prison in California has the restriction, McMahon said.
Sheriff's officials say people can communicate with inmates by sending multiple postcards as large as 6½ by 11 inches. The restriction does not apply to correspondence between inmates and their lawyers.