STAMPS OF DISAPPROVAL
For more than 2 years, the South Boise Complex mailroom (and quite possibly IDOC prison mailrooms in other parts of the state) have been ripping (adhesive backed) postage stamps from most incoming prisoner mail/envelopes under the guise of security, but is there a more - illegitimate and darker reason?
To begin, the pretext that postage stamps are removed in an effort to prevent drugs from being placed under the stamps as a means of introducing these substances into the prison is ridiculous - not because it couldn't be the reason, but because of the fact that staff do not remove other adhesive labels such as return address, airmail and other labels and stickers from the envelopes. Further, there seems to be no search of the area where the flap of the envelope meets the the main body, more than 5 times the surface area on a standard #10 envelope than on a standard postage stamp.
So why would staff at the South Boise Complex mailroom go through the trouble? Well, the answer may lie in the fact that there is quite a lucrative market for used stamps / postmarks sold in bulk on the internet.
As a means of raising funds, the U.K. based non-profit organization "Human Writes" asks prisoners in the US to send [them] their used postage stamps which are then sold on Ebay. Instructions to prisoners wanting to send these donations are asked to "tear around the stamps, leaving about a quarter of an inch of envelope" - exactly the means being used to remove stamps by mailroom staff. The stamps are then sorted by quality, country of issue, readability of postmarks and other factors then sold in bulk to collectors and others around the world.
When asked about how much these used postage stamp donations realize for Human Writes, Ms. Helen Barker, long time Coordinator for HW reports that the organization sells enough used stamps to receive between 200 and 250 (pounds), more than $300 a year. It is estimated that Human Writes receives approximately the same number of stamps from prisoners across the US in one year that the IDOC South Boise Complex mailroom removes from incoming prisoner mail in a single month.
In a Concern form submitted to the mailroom by ISCC prisoner Dale Shackelford requesting information on the disposition of the postage stamps removed from [his] envelopes, one mailroom staff member responded that the stamps were "disposed of", while another staff member in a separate Concern response told Shackelford that the disposition of the stamps was "none of your business."
IDOC SOP regarding incoming prisoner mail (402.02.01.001) does not require nor support the wholesale removal of postage stamps from envelopes unless there is some suspicion that contraband may be included. Relevant SOP states: "If staff have a reasonable suspicion that a stamp, label, or sticker is being used to conceal contraband, such items may be removed before the mail is delivered (version 12.0 - page 11). Mailroom removal of these stamps prevents donations of these stamps - some of which can be considerably valuable - to any number of groups or organizations who use them to raise funds for charity and other purposes.
In the most recent data received by Shackelford regarding funds being paid to the IDOC Inmate Management Fund (and ultimately to the General Fund of the State of Idaho), there is no indication that there have been any monies received by the IDOC from the sale of any used postage stamps. If this source of revenue is being incinerated, more's the pity for the waste.
More on this issue as facts become available.
To begin, the pretext that postage stamps are removed in an effort to prevent drugs from being placed under the stamps as a means of introducing these substances into the prison is ridiculous - not because it couldn't be the reason, but because of the fact that staff do not remove other adhesive labels such as return address, airmail and other labels and stickers from the envelopes. Further, there seems to be no search of the area where the flap of the envelope meets the the main body, more than 5 times the surface area on a standard #10 envelope than on a standard postage stamp.
So why would staff at the South Boise Complex mailroom go through the trouble? Well, the answer may lie in the fact that there is quite a lucrative market for used stamps / postmarks sold in bulk on the internet.
As a means of raising funds, the U.K. based non-profit organization "Human Writes" asks prisoners in the US to send [them] their used postage stamps which are then sold on Ebay. Instructions to prisoners wanting to send these donations are asked to "tear around the stamps, leaving about a quarter of an inch of envelope" - exactly the means being used to remove stamps by mailroom staff. The stamps are then sorted by quality, country of issue, readability of postmarks and other factors then sold in bulk to collectors and others around the world.
When asked about how much these used postage stamp donations realize for Human Writes, Ms. Helen Barker, long time Coordinator for HW reports that the organization sells enough used stamps to receive between 200 and 250 (pounds), more than $300 a year. It is estimated that Human Writes receives approximately the same number of stamps from prisoners across the US in one year that the IDOC South Boise Complex mailroom removes from incoming prisoner mail in a single month.
In a Concern form submitted to the mailroom by ISCC prisoner Dale Shackelford requesting information on the disposition of the postage stamps removed from [his] envelopes, one mailroom staff member responded that the stamps were "disposed of", while another staff member in a separate Concern response told Shackelford that the disposition of the stamps was "none of your business."
IDOC SOP regarding incoming prisoner mail (402.02.01.001) does not require nor support the wholesale removal of postage stamps from envelopes unless there is some suspicion that contraband may be included. Relevant SOP states: "If staff have a reasonable suspicion that a stamp, label, or sticker is being used to conceal contraband, such items may be removed before the mail is delivered (version 12.0 - page 11). Mailroom removal of these stamps prevents donations of these stamps - some of which can be considerably valuable - to any number of groups or organizations who use them to raise funds for charity and other purposes.
In the most recent data received by Shackelford regarding funds being paid to the IDOC Inmate Management Fund (and ultimately to the General Fund of the State of Idaho), there is no indication that there have been any monies received by the IDOC from the sale of any used postage stamps. If this source of revenue is being incinerated, more's the pity for the waste.
More on this issue as facts become available.