The ruling covers only Columbia County, Oregon, but plaintiff Prison Legal News anticipates that other groups will help jail inmates overturn a jailhouse rule against receiving envelop mail. The policy first began, of course, in Maricopa County AZ, where the notorious sheriff worried that opening mail for inspection took too much time, and his staff found numerous instances of contraband in the letters. The practice spread to other jails. Now, though, First Amendment rights are protected--in one county at least.
The ruling covers only Columbia County, Oregon, but plaintiff Prison Legal News anticipates that other groups will help jail inmates overturn a jailhouse rule against receiving envelop mail. The policy first began, of course, in Maricopa County AZ, where the notorious sheriff worried that opening mail for inspection took too much time, and his staff found numerous instances of contraband in the letters. The practice spread to other jails. Now, though, First Amendment rights are protected–in one county at least.
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