BOP Ends “Blast” Messages on TRULINCS
On October 8, 2024, federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) spokesman Ben O’Cone announced a change to the TRULINCS messaging system used by prisoners: Starting then, no more than 10 prisoners can be addressed in any single message. The move put an end to what had been the functional equivalent to a mass email. It will also force advocacy and support groups to change the way that they communicate with federal prisoners.
O’Cone said the change was prompted by a March 2020 audit by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of BOP’s parent agency, the federal Department of Justice. That report, Monitoring of Inmate Communications to Prevent Radicalization, identified a concern that prisoners at “high-risk” of “radicalization” may be receiving group messages from those supportive of terroristic activities.
In response, O’Cone said, BOP leadership decided to cap the number of recipient TRULINCS addresses in any single message. He didn’t say why BOP didn’t simply monitor communication to those prisoners identified as “high risk.” But among the babies thrown out with this bathwater were “blast” emails from both large nonprofits, like Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), and small nonprofits like More Than Our Crimes, which advocates to include long-term prisoners in sentencing reform. Said co-founder Pamela Bailey, “I’m unsure how I can continue to do this manually for thousands of people I routinely write to.”
The change is especially difficult for FAMM and other groups trying to share information with federal prisoners confused about the First Step Act, a 2018 law that BOP is still struggling to implement, as PLN has reported. [See, eg: PLN, June 2024, p.18.]
Source: Forbes
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