Illegal drugs are rampant in state prisons, as in every other level of prison, and efforts to curb their spread require constant management. One of these efforts means that convicts will no longer be able to receive cookies from grandma or any other ‘care’ packages from home.
Under the new policy, which the state began phasing in last month, friends and family aren’t allowed to deliver packages in person during prison visits. They also won’t be allowed to mail any other goodies unless those come directly from third-party vendors.
In other words, this won’t stop prisoners from getting items that can be ordered online, like a Snickers bar or a bag of Twix, but they will lose access to foods like home-cooked meals or grandma’s special cookies.
According to an article in the Associated Press/Report for America, that’s a disappointment for people like Caroline Hansen, who for 10 years has been hand-delivering packages filled with fresh vegetables, fruits, and meats to her husband, who is serving a life sentence for killing a cab driver.
Hansen, a single mother of two who works as a waitress in Long Island stated, “When I first started bringing him packages, he said he loved avocados. He hadn’t had them in about 20 years.” “What breaks my heart is, I take for granted having a banana with my yogurt. Imagine never being able to eat a banana?” she added, saying her husband’s prison cafeteria serves bananas once a month, at most.
Until this recent rule, New York had been one of the few states in the nation that still allowed families to send packages to inmates from home. California stopped allowing people to send packages directly to inmates in 2003.
A similar change may be in the offing regarding letters written on paper. Incoming letters will be scanned by computer, and prisoners will get copies. This change is being made to try and head off a trend of people soaking letters in drugs to smuggle them past authorities. Multiple states including Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nebraska and Pennsylvania, already photocopy incoming mail to prevent drugs from being delivered to inmates. The federal Bureau of Prisons began a similar practice in 2019. New York’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said in a statement that the two new policies are necessary to stop contraband.
When packages are received by a prison, officers remove the items from the box to inspect the items visually or through an X-ray machine. If there is reason for suspicion, officers are allowed to open sealed packages for further inspection. Those checks, though, aren’t perfect, and authorities believe items slip through. Critics of the package ban questioned its effectiveness, and they note that prohibited items are sometimes brought in by corrupt prison staff.
Hansen said that having to order goods through vendors that charge “ridiculous prices,” was no solution to the contraband problem. “My husband basically thinks this is one more way to deprive him of his basic necessities,” Hansen said.
More than 60 families of inmates sent grievance letters to New York Assembly member David Weprin, the Democratic chair of the Assembly’s Committee on Correction. Weprin criticized the new policy.
