Minnesota DOC Commissioner explains changes to mail system

Mail sent to Minnesota prisoners will now make another stop before finding its way into jail mailboxes. Starting Nov. 1, the Minnesota Department of Corrections is now under contract with TextBehind, a mail screening service, to check mail before it makes its way into Minnesota prisons.

TextBehind is based in Maryland, meaning mail will make its way there first before heading back to Minnesota. Mail sent will also be copied, and the copies passed along.

DOC Commissioner Paul Schnell says that decision comes down to safety.

"We have to deal with problems as they present," he said. "And this is a problem that has presented."

That problem stems from synthetic drugs making their way in through the mail system. In the Stillwater prison, an inmate has died and several staff members were hospitalized because of those drugs.

Schnell says many of their facilities aren't equipped to properly screen mail like TextBehind can.

"It goes to a place that has, that is set up for this kind of work. Hooded, vented, all of that kind of stuff," Schnell said. "We don't have the venting, remember, most of these, many of these facilities are over 100 years old."

Copies of mail are not new inside some Minnesota prisons. Stillwater was one of three facilities photocopying all mail, then returning the copies to inmates. Originals were destroyed.

Inmates voiced their concerns to KARE 11, saying copies don't hold the same emotional value as originals – like drawings and handwritten letters – do.

"I understand that there's a level of, you know, sensitivity, and some personal nature that can be lost in that," Schnell said. "At the same time, you can't let people die in prison, and we've had people die in prison."

Schnell also says this will save costs. That contract is $540,000 and is currently just for the next year.

"The reality is that we can look at one facility where we were piloting and saw that our toner costs were running near $20,000. That's just toner, that doesn't include staff time, that doesn't include the machines that we had to rent," Schnell said. "So you start to add this up across the system, and you can start to see really quickly how that $20,000 is $240,000 for a year in one facility... this is $540,000 for all 8,000 incarcerated people who are in custody."

Schnell says this will also speed up mail delivery. He says when staff inside Minnesota facilities were copying mail themselves, they saw delays of nearly two weeks at times.

Inmates KARE 11 spoke with told us they had concerns about the new mail system, saying they believe some won't want to send letters, knowing it has to go all the way to Maryland. Others said there's more that can be done without having to change the mail system.

"We need all hands on deck, you know what I mean? Just can't be one side, you have to be both sides," James Reed, serving time in Stillwater for murder, said.

Others say there needs to be more programs set up for inmates to succeed. Rich Scheibe, also serving time inside Stillwater for murder, says he supports starting a group for those trying to break their addictions.

"There isn't a single Narcotics Anonymous support group in here. There's Alcoholics Anonymous, yes, but not Narcotics Anonymous, and they are two very distinct addictions," Scheibe said. "So I think that's one thing that really could be initiated in here to help at least address that issue."

We asked Schnell if there was a possibility of synthetic drugs ending up inside facilities by ways other than through the mail.

"We're always going to be focused on policing ourselves. We have, to that's the fundamental to public trust," he said. "That's fundamental to making sure that that's good security, and so, we are going to continue to do that? Are we going to step that up? We want to make sure we're stepping up all efforts that are going to improve the safety for everyone who lives in or works at these facilities, and if that means that we're going to we do additional search stuff with our staff, that could happen."