Prisons shredding letters to inmates

Letters sent to people in prison in NSW and Victoria are being shredded and some are being provided with illegible photocopies instead under a regulation put in place at the start of the pandemic.

Under a regulation introduced quietly at the start of the Covid pandemic, people in prison in New South Wales can no longer receive original letters and envelopes from their family and loved ones in the community.

A similar piece of legislation in Victoria also allows prison officers to confiscate original letters and provide photocopies instead.

The NSW regulation, ostensibly introduced to combat illicit substances being sent inside prison, requires prisons to photocopy an original and provide that to the inmate, with the original then shredded or thrown out.

This applies to all items sent to a person in prison, including children’s drawings and cards.

There have been multiple reports of letters being photocopied poorly or in a way that makes much of the letter unreadable, and of photocopied mail being delivered to the wrong people.

The NSW government has now been asked about this practice in Parliament, with NSW Greens MLC Sue Higginson calling on the regulation in question to be repealed. Higginson said it is “clearly invasive” and leads to concerns over censorship as well.

In Victoria prison staff are also allowed to photocopy letters and dispose of the original copies. Section 47CA of the Corrections Act allows a designated officer to make a “true copy” of a letter that is sent or received by someone in prison.

According to Justice Action, there have been multiple reports that photocopied letters have been incomplete and often illegible, sometimes with only the right hand side readable or a third left unreadable.

“The improper photocopying of letters and destruction of the original is an unprecedented deprivation of a prisoner’s basic entitlement to receive the original letters and envelopes addressed to them,” Justice Action said.

Concerns over the introduction of prohibited goods and drugs are not justifiable excuses for the ban, the organisation said.

“This has always been an issue that prisoners have been required to deal with and there is no justification for suddenly restricting prisoners’ rights as a response to this,” Justice Action said.

Receiving original, hand-written letters from family and loved ones is crucial to people in prison, Justice Action said.

“Timely delivery of mail is important for prisoners to maintain contact with family and friends, to receive time-sensitive information, to plan and prepare for release and to maintain their mental health,” it said.

“Delays and denial of access to original letters can cause significant harm to mental health with some prisoners reporting that they fear their loved ones have abandoned them when letters haven’t arrived.”

The Crimes (Administration of Sentences) Amendment (Inmate Mail) Regulation 2020 (NSW) was introduced as a regulation without any debate in Parliament, at the onset of the Covid pandemic.