Mail scanning: It’s finally happening

After AFSCME and the Illinois Department of Corrections reached an agreement to bring mail scanning technology to every state prison, union members took heart, hoping that the years of heightened drug use by individuals in custody would be coming to an end.

As of Oct. 3, that promise became a reality: Mail scanning is now fully operational at every single state prison. 

In recent years, smuggling drugs into prison through the mail has become frighteningly common among individuals in custody, and as a result, drug exposures and hospitalizations of prison staff have gone through the roof.

Now, corrective action is being taken at last.  In addition to shifting to electronic scanning of the mail, the department has ended an emergency rule that allowed books and magazines to be dropped off at the front gate. Now, AFSCME members no longer need to handle those materials. Instead they have to be sent in from an authorized publisher or book distributor. 

Though there are some operational hiccups that will get ironed out with time, mail scanning is thus far working as intended.

AFSCME members in IDOC should be proud of their efforts in getting mail scanning across the finish line.