Good afternoon,

While the FDOC pretends to recognize the important role that family plays in the success of the people in their care, they keep taking steps to scar and erase the family bonds. Today, we have to plead for the simple act of reading a handwritten letter, for incarcerated individuals to hold paper in their hands, to see the little hesitations, the added smiles, and guess the emotions through the shape of the words. My husband’s letters are everything to me, and I still don’t think I can understand how much mine mean to him. This is the last tangible link, and the only place of vague privacy. Now, for the sake of a few new computers every 6 months, the FDOC is trying to take this away, and collect our data to share with a private company and its individuals.

Besides that, the amount of time it is going to take to get a “letter” to our loved ones will be extended and it is not acceptable when e-mails will then be the only way to reach them. FL Prisons and JPay have already proven themselves unfit to provide working material and handle the emails. Just a week ago, at UCI, the guys were without Wi-Fi or decent access to kiosks for 2 weeks. Without the regular mail, this means complete cut-off from the outside and their families. Same idea when they are in confinement, can’t access canteen, and we will be unable to send them stamps and paper. Also the end of the blank greeting cards we donate so they have a semblance of holiday spirit and treat their friends.

On top of this, the FDOC wants to limit the number of pages we can send. Are you able to limit the number of feelings I need to express to my husband too?

The new rule doesn’t even take overseas mail in consideration, which shows how out of touch with reality the minds behind those rules are.

This change will not destroy whatever contraband you believe comes through the mail, it will destroy human spirits and families.

Have a nice day.

Good afternoon,

While the FDOC pretends to recognize the important role that family plays in the success of the people in their care, they keep taking steps to scar and erase the family bonds. Today, we have to plead for the simple act of reading a handwritten letter, for incarcerated individuals to hold paper in their hands, to see the little hesitations, the added smiles, and guess the emotions through the shape of the words. My husband’s letters are everything to me, and I still don’t think I can understand how much mine mean to him. This is the last tangible link, and the only place of vague privacy. Now, for the sake of a few new computers every 6 months, the FDOC is trying to take this away, and collect our data to share with a private company and its individuals.

Besides that, the amount of time it is going to take to get a “letter” to our loved ones will be extended and it is not acceptable when e-mails will then be the only way to reach them. FL Prisons and JPay have already proven themselves unfit to provide working material and handle the emails. Just a week ago, at UCI, the guys were without Wi-Fi or decent access to kiosks for 2 weeks. Without the regular mail, this means complete cut-off from the outside and their families. Same idea when they are in confinement, can’t access canteen, and we will be unable to send them stamps and paper. Also the end of the blank greeting cards we donate so they have a semblance of holiday spirit and treat their friends.

On top of this, the FDOC wants to limit the number of pages we can send. Are you able to limit the number of feelings I need to express to my husband too?

The new rule doesn’t even take overseas mail in consideration, which shows how out of touch with reality the minds behind those rules are.

This change will not destroy whatever contraband you believe comes through the mail, it will destroy human spirits and families.

Have a nice day.

Sometimes, I don’t hear from my husband for days, as the prison is holding emails, just because they can, and we don’t have phone calls. And then, I receive a letter or I do get our monthly phone call. And it’s here. That homey feeling. I remember everything. The connection, the love, the strength. For a few minutes, it feels like we have never been separated. We try to update each other quickly on what’s going on for us, mostly our son’s medical problems or needs on my side, we joke, we express our love and commitment. It goes fast, but it gives me a high for a day or two. I’m loved, I have a caring husband, we have a family. Then darkness takes over again, as quickly as that phone call went by. The hurt and pain of missing him is back. The helplessness towards his situation, my situation, and our baby’s situation. More often than not, the hopelessness even. Imagine only hearing the voice of the person you love ONCE a month. 

You may have seen in the last couple of days that the FDOC has moved forward with the mail rule changes. If you have not been following this since last year, the FDOC plans to simply get rid of physical incoming mail, by having us send our mail to a third party who will use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and send it to our incarcerated loved ones through JPay.

This means the end of greeting cards, kids drawings, and much more, and they also limit the weight of our letters to ONE forever stamp.
This also means everything you will ever write will now be saved in a database.

You can read the full proposal here.

Please, make sure to request a public hearing on this matter before 6/8/2021.

Send email to:  Jason.Holman@fdc.myflorida.com
Subject:  Request for Public Hearing on Notice of Proposed Rule 33-210.101

You don’t need to write a lot, just explain that as someone who writes to people in the FDOC care you are directly affected by this rule under F.A.C. 120.536(3) and you want to request a hearing, preferably virtually and with a 14-day notice pursuant to 120.54(3)(a)3., where prison families will be allotted time to speak and the people responsible for the rule be available to answer questions and comments.

Please request a workshop to try to block some changes:

The JPay stamps in Florida have been incredibly expensive compared to other States, the cheapest being Washington State. Until today, we could buy stamps in any State we had a contact in (for example I had a pen pal in Washington State so I was buying my stamps there) and we could use those stamps with any of our contacts (so I would mostly use them on my husband in Florida, and occasionally with my pen pal in Louisiana). I was buying A LOT of stamps because I am also sending a lot of videos of the baby during this pandemic, and in Florida (again this is different in every state) a 30 sec video is 4 virtual stamps. Now the stamps we buy in one State can only be use in one State. That means if I want to write one email to each of my contacts, I have to buy stamps package in all the States (-_-). But to be honest I mostly use my stamps on one person (Florida), and now I probably won’t be able to afford to write as much or send videos. I guess this is a personal issue but I know numerous families are in the same boat. Right now we have no visits, video visitation doesn’t seem to work for those we have access to it, they are planning to kill the regular mail and now most people won’t be able to afford emails… FDOC is going completely backwards trying to cut the incarcerated people from their outside support. This is terrible.