Inmates’ families, advocates plead with state not to block delivery of physical mail

As correction officials wait for final legislative approval to restrict physical mail from being delivered to people who are incarcerated, prison advocacy groups are asking lawmakers to block the restriction.

In response to a rise of drugs entering prisons and an increase in overdose among those incarcerated, the Nevada Department of Corrections proposed limiting mail. Officials proposed to digitize the mail and give it to incarcerated people electronically. 

“NDOC is also aware that processing offender mail by digital scanning will likely not eliminate the introduction of contraband,” said prison director James Dzurenda in October, adding that it “will lessen the risk and allow for a greater focus on other avenues of contraband introduction.”

Return Strong and the Nevada Fines and Fees Justice Center have also questioned the evidence officials presented to the Board of Prison Commissioners in October justifying the regulation.  

“The director has been clear that taking away physical mail will not address demand for drugs, and it will only increase violence and the price of drugs, making compromising staff an even bigger reality than it already is,” Jodi Hocking, the founder of Return Strong, told commissioners. 

The Board of Prisons Commissioners, which includes Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, Attorney General and now Governor-elect Aaron Ford, and Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, both Democrats, unanimously approved the regulation to proceed. 

The regulation needs final approval from the Legislative Commission, which is slated to meet in December. 

Dzurenda  told the board the department used opioid settlement funds to conduct a study. 

The funds were used to place a drug detection device “at the High Desert State Prison to detect abnormalities in the mail,” he said, adding “233 were positively identified as containing contraband substances.”

Return Strong and the Nevada Fines and Fees Justice Center authored an analysis of study on prison mail, which it shared with Nevada Current.

The analysis argues that NDOC’s study should have inspected “mail selected at random and tested across facilities and security levels” rather than what NDOC prepared, which inspected 20% of mail at only High Desert State Prison “with no explanation of how pieces were selected.” 

“Statewide numbers were reached by simple multiplication,” according to the analysis findings, adding that the one-year study period ended after nine months and “before the holiday mail season.”

Hocking told the board in October it shouldn’t consider a regulation at all  “but especially not until all questions have been answered and problems resolved.”

“We know from history that we can’t go backwards and fix things that have already been passed,” she said. “We’re not even close to the point that this is ready to be moved forward.”

The analysis shared with the Current from prison advocacy groups also notes that “the study does not control for other possible causes: drugs coming in through other routes, changes in drug potency, changes in how overdoses are reported, population shifts, or access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT).” 

The full analysis is expected to be released publicly ahead of next month’s Legislative Commission meeting. 

NDOC originally tried to restrict mail in 2022, but the move was blocked by then Gov. Steve Sisolak.

Lawmakers in 2023 passed Assembly Bill 121 that not only requires all incarcerated people receive physical and original copies of their mail but mandates corrections officials submit a study “and any evidence or data” prior to adopting a regulation that restricts mail access. 

Hocking said the Legislature set a bar for NDOC to pursue a regulation, and it has not met that.  

“We’re not here to deny that the overdose crisis exists,” she said. “People are dying. Other incarcerated individuals, families, and staff are carrying that with them. We want it to stop as much as anyone in this room, but the law sets a bar.”

NDOC held its first public workshop on the proposed regulation in April despite not releasing any public study mandated by the law. The findings were released in May. 

Scoffing at state law requiring a study first, NDOC plans more limits on prison mail

The board was originally slated to hear the proposed regulation during the summer, but the item was withdrawn before re-emerging at the October meeting. 

If the regulation receives final legislative approval, Drzurenda said NDOC would pilot its new approach to mail, which would be scanned and given to inmates electronically, at High Desert State Prison first. 

“There’s going to be a 60-day notice to the offenders and their families with the address of where they send it to,” Dzurenda said at the October board meeting. “The process will begin after 60 days.” 

In addition to restricting physical mail, the new regulation also blocks people who are incarcerated from receiving picture drawings, which would instead be digitally scanned and uploaded on a person’s tablet. 

“This is unfortunately a necessary safety and security measure given that synthetic drugs are being added into the color ink and soaked into the paper,” Dzurenda said. 

People will still be able to send photographs, but Dzurenda said they would first have to use a yet-to-be determined company that specialized in printing photos.

“While this contract has not yet been finalized, the price for this service will be similar to the cost of reproduction photographs that are already in commercial photo centers such as Walgreens and CVS and similar convenience stores,” he said.

During an emotional public comment, family members of those incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals pleaded with the board not to approve the restriction.

Among those opposed to the regulation was Nathaniel Williams, who said he was incarcerated in Nevada four times. 

Williams said he struggled with addiction throughout his life, including while incarcerated in Nevada.

“I didn’t do heroin until I was in the Nevada Department of Corrections and never used a syringe until I was in the Nevada Department of Corrections,” he said. “That heroine and that syringe did not come through the mail.”

The only thing he received in the mail were letters from his grandmother and son, which he brought with him as he testified in October. He was released from prison three years ago, and said he will always keep those letters because of what they meant to him while incarcerated. 

Prior to his vote in October, Ford said he understood his support of restriction mail would “disappoint a lot of people out there, I think this is a very important step to take,” 

“I do think that the study that has been utilized is sufficient for purposes of satisfying the statutory requirement as well,” he said.