Kan. Admin. Regs. § 44-12-601 - Mail
(a) Definitions.
(1)
(A)
"Legal mail" means mail affecting the inmate's right of access to the courts or
legal counsel. This term shall be limited to letters between the inmate and any
lawyer, a judge, a clerk of a court, or any intern or employee of a lawyer or
law firm, legal clinic, or legal services organization, including legal
services for prisoners.
(B)
"Official mail" means any mail between an inmate and an official of the state
or federal government who has authority to control, or to obtain or conduct an
investigation of, the custody or conditions of confinement of the
inmate.
(C) "Privileged mail" means
any mail between the inmate and the inmate's physician, psychiatrist,
psychologist, or other licensed mental health therapist.
(2)
(A)
"Censor" means to remove or change any part or all of the correspondence or
literature.
(B) "Inspect" means to
open, shake out, look through, feel, or otherwise check for contraband without
reading or censoring. This term shall include any cursory reading necessary to
verify that mail is legal or official in nature as permitted by paragraph
(f)(3).
(C) "Read" means to read
the contents of correspondence or literature to ascertain the
content.
(3) "Minor"
means a person under the age of 18.
(4) "Bodily substance" means blood, fecal
matter, nasal or sinus mucous or secretions, perspiration, saliva, semen, skin
or other tissue, sputum, tears, urine, or vaginal secretions.
(b) General provisions.
(1) Each inmate shall comply with the mail
procedures and restrictions established by the order of the warden of the
facility. Failure to comply with mail procedures or restrictions, or
circumventing or attempting to circumvent mail procedures or restrictions by
any means, shall be prohibited. The delivery of mail through an employee,
volunteer, teacher, or any other person who is not authorized to perform
functions related to the established mail-handling system shall be
prohibited.
(2) Contraband. Items
identified as contraband shall be dealt with as provided in subsection (d) and
then either returned to the sender at the inmate's expense or destroyed, at the
inmate's option. Items illegal under Kansas or U.S. federal law shall be seized
and held as evidence for other law enforcement officers.
(3) All incoming mail shall identify the
inmate recipient by name and inmate identification number.
(4) Violation of mail regulations of the
department of corrections, orders of the warden, or the laws of Kansas or the
United States may result in additional mail restrictions upon the offender that
are sufficient to prevent the continuation or reoccurrence of the
violation.
(5) All funds sent for
deposit to an inmate's trust account shall be in the form of an electronic
funds transfer sent through an entity under contract with the department of
corrections to conduct those transactions. These funds shall be sent to the
centralized banking location or individual work release location designated by
the secretary. All other funds sent for deposit to an inmate's trust account,
other than governmental checks, warrants, and worker's compensation benefit
checks, shall be returned immediately to the sender, and the intended inmate
recipient shall be so notified in writing, without need of formal censorship.
Except for correspondence qualifying as legal mail in which funds are enclosed
in an envelope clearly marked as such, correspondence or other material sent
with funds shall not be forwarded and shall be discarded.
(6) Any incoming or outgoing mail other than
legal, official, or privileged mail may be inspected or read at any
time.
(7) Incoming mail addressed
solely to a specific inmate and not otherwise subject to censorship shall be
delivered regardless of whether the mail is sent free of charge or at a reduced
rate. All incoming mail shall nonetheless bear the sender's name and address on
the envelope, or this mail shall not be delivered and shall be immediately
destroyed.
(8) Any outgoing
first-class letters may be sent to as many people and to whomever the inmate
chooses, subject to the restrictions in this regulation.
(9) Outgoing inmate mail shall bear the full
conviction name, inmate number, and address of the sender, and the name and
address of the intended recipient. No other words, drawings, or messages shall
be placed on the outside of the envelope or package by an inmate except words
describing the mail as being legal, official, privileged, or intended to aid
postal officials in delivery of the item. Outgoing inmate mail shall be stamped
by the facility to indicate that it was mailed from a facility operated by the
department of corrections and that it has not been censored.
(10) Inmates shall not correspond with any
person, either directly or through third parties, who has filed a written
objection to the correspondence with the director of victim services in the
department of corrections central office. The director of victim services in
the department of corrections central office shall notify the warden of the
facility where the offender is incarcerated of any written objections to
correspondence sent by the offender within three business days of its receipt.
(A) The inmate shall be notified of the
objection in writing when it is received, but shall not be required to be
informed of the exact contents of the objection.
(B) Orders shall be developed by the warden
of each facility to prevent further correspondence from being sent to those who
have filed an objection.
(C) This
regulation shall not prevent an inmate from writing to the inmate's natural or
adoptive child, unless the child was the victim of the crime for which the
inmate is incarcerated, the person having legal custody of the child files a
written objection with the director of victim services in the department of
corrections central office, and the inmate has not obtained a court order
permitting this written communication with the child. The director of victim
services in the department of corrections shall inform the warden of the
facility where the inmate is assigned of any objection from the person having
legal custody of the child within three business days of its receipt.
(11)
(A) No inmate shall correspond with a minor,
either directly or through any third party, unless one of the following
conditions is met:
(i) A parent or legal
guardian of the minor has filed written authorization for the correspondence
between the inmate and the minor with the director of victim services in the
department of corrections central office.
(ii) If the minor is the inmate's natural or
adoptive child, the correspondence is authorized pursuant to paragraph
(b)(10)(C), and the inmate has registered the child by providing the name, date
of birth, and address of the natural or adoptive child to the director of
victim services.
(B) The
director of victim services shall notify the warden of the facility where the
inmate is incarcerated of any written authorization for correspondence with a
minor who is not the natural or adoptive child of the inmate, as well as the
registration information of the inmate's natural or adoptive child.
(12) An inmate shall not mail or
attempt to mail any of the following:
(A) Any
bodily substance;
(B) a substance
represented by the inmate as being a bodily substance; or
(C) a substance that a reasonable person
would conclude is a bodily substance.
(c) Legal, official, and privileged mail.
(1) Subject to the provisions of paragraph
(f)(3), outgoing privileged, official, or legal mail sent by any inmate shall
be opened and read only upon authorization of the warden for good cause shown.
However, if any inmate threatens or terrorizes any person through this mail,
any subsequent mail, including official or legal mail, from the inmate to the
person threatened or terrorized may, at the request of that person, be read and
censored for a time period and to the extent necessary to remedy the
abuse.
(2) Incoming mail clearly
identified as legal, official, or privileged mail shall be opened only in the
inmate's presence. This mail shall be inspected for contraband but shall not be
read or censored, unless authorized by the warden based upon a documented
previous abuse of the right or other good cause.
(3) All legal mail and official mail shall be
indefinitely forwarded to the inmate's last known address. If any mail is
returned to a facility as undeliverable when sent to the inmate's last known
address, the mail shall be returned to the sender with a notice that the mail
was forwarded unsuccessfully and is now returned to the sender for further
disposition.
(d)
Censorship grounds and procedures.
(1)
Incoming or outgoing mail, other than legal, official, or privileged mail, may
be censored only when there is reasonable belief in any of the following:
(A) There is a threat to institutional
safety, order, or security.
(B)
There is a threat to the safety and security of public officials or the general
public.
(C) The mail is being used
in furtherance of illegal activities.
(D) The mail is correspondence between
offenders, including any former inmate regardless of current custodial status,
that has not been authorized according to subsection (e). Correspondence
between offenders may be inspected or read at any time.
(E) The mail contains sexually explicit
material, as defined and proscribed by K.A.R. 44-12-313.
(2) If any communication to or from an inmate
is censored, all of the following requirements shall be met:
(A) Each inmate shall be given a written
notice of the censorship and the reason for the censorship, without disclosing
the censored material.
(B) Each
inmate shall be given the name and address of the sender of incoming mail, if
known, or the addressee of outgoing mail and the date the item was received in
the mail room. Notice of the censorship of correspondence by the facility shall
be provided to the sender, if known, by staff in the facility's mail room
within three business days of the decision to censor.
(C) The author or addressee of the censored
correspondence shall have 15 business days from the date of the notice of
censorship to protest that decision.
(D) All protests shall be forwarded to the
secretary of corrections or the secretary's designee for final review and
disposition.
(E) Each inmate shall
have the option of having censored correspondence or other materials in their
entirety either mailed out at the expense of the inmate or discarded.
(e) Offender
correspondence with other offenders.
Offenders sentenced to the custody of the Kansas department of corrections shall not correspond with any person who is in the custody of or under the supervision of any state, federal, county, community corrections, or municipal law enforcement agency, or with any former inmate regardless of current custodial status, unless either of the following conditions is met:
(1) The proposed correspondents
are members of the same immediate family or are parties in the same legal
action, or one of the persons is a party and the other person is a witness in
the same legal action.
(2)
Permission for correspondence is granted due to exceptional circumstances.
Verification and approval of offender correspondence shall be conducted
pursuant to the internal policies and procedures of the department of
corrections.
(f) Writing
supplies and postage.
(1) Stationery and
stamps shall be available for purchase from the inmate canteen.
(2) Indigent inmates, as defined by the
internal management policies and procedures of the department of corrections,
shall receive reasonable amounts of free writing paper, envelopes, and postage
for first-class domestic mail weighing one ounce or less, not to exceed four
letters per month.
(3) All postage
for legal and official mail shall be paid by the inmate, unless the inmate is
indigent, as defined by the internal management policies and procedures of the
department of corrections. The cost of postage for legal or official mail paid
by the facility on behalf of an indigent inmate shall be deducted from the
inmate's funds, if available. Credit for postage for legal and official mail
shall be extended to indigent inmates under the terms and conditions of the
internal management policies and procedures of the department of corrections.
Outgoing legal or official mail sent with postage provided on credit shall be
subject to inspection and a cursory reading in the presence of the inmate for
the purpose of ascertaining that the mail is indeed legal or official mail, and
the inmate shall then be permitted to seal the envelope containing the
mail.
(4) The facility shall not
pay postage for inmate groups or organizations.
(5) The mailing of postage stamps by an
offender shall be prohibited.
(g) Publications.
(1) Inmates may receive books, newspapers,
and periodicals as permitted by the internal management policies and procedures
of the department of corrections. All books, newspapers, and periodicals shall
be purchased through account withdrawal requests. Only books, newspapers, and
periodicals received directly from a publisher or a vendor shall be accepted.
However, an inmate shall be permitted to receive printed material, including
newspaper and magazine clippings, if the material is included as part of a
first-class letter that does not exceed one ounce in total weight.
(2) The procedures for censorship of mail
listed in subsection (d) shall be used for censorship of
publications.
(3) No publication
that meets either of the following conditions shall be allowed into the
facility:
(A) Contains sexually explicit
material, as described in K.A.R. 44-12-313, or is otherwise illegal, in whole
or in part; or
(B) meets, in whole
or in part, the test for censorship of mail in subsection (d).
(4) Inmates shall have the option
of having censored publications in their entirety either mailed out of the
facility at their own expense or discarded.
(5) Before transferring between facilities,
the inmate shall arrange for a change of address for the inmate's mail,
including newspapers and periodicals. Mail, with the exception of legal mail or
official mail, shall not be forwarded for more than 30 days after the date of
transfer.
(h) Regulation
violation. Each violation of this regulation shall be a class I
offense.
Notes
State regulations are updated quarterly; we currently have two versions available. Below is a comparison between our most recent version and the prior quarterly release. More comparison features will be added as we have more versions to compare.
No prior version found.