Oversight panel OKs rule on digitized prison mail in Illinois with new
changes
[January 10, 2026]
By Maggie Dougherty
CHICAGO — A state legislative oversight committee Friday permitted the
Illinois Department of Corrections to formally adopt permanent rules
that allow it to scan and digitize mail of those in custody, in a blow
to prison reform advocates.
The rule was originally introduced under pressure from Republican
legislators and the IDOC workers’ union after a series of substance
exposures in the fall of 2024 left correctional staff hospitalized. The
policy has been in effect on an emergency basis since August.
The department sought to make the rule permanent, describing it as a
necessary safety precaution to keep drugs and dangerous substances from
being smuggled into prisons via the mail, while critics said little
evidence supports the rule, and that it violates the civil rights of
incarcerated people.
Reading letters from loved ones on a tablet, they said, was not the same
as being able to hold the real thing. Prison monitoring groups and legal
advocates also raised data privacy concerns about the use of third-party
vendors and protections for legal mail sent by attorneys.
The Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, which oversees
administrative rulemaking, issued an objection to the rule in September,
telling the department it needed to implement feedback from incarcerated
people, families, attorneys and other stakeholders if it wanted to adopt
the rule permanently.
After a period of public comment and engagement with stakeholders, the
department introduced amended rules, including some exceptions for
photographs and used books, as well as clarifications for legal mail.
Photographs must be unopened and sent directly from a vendor. Those in
custody can also receive a physical printout of their mail upon request,
at no cost to the individual, under the amended rules.
JCAR decided Friday that the department had done enough to warrant
instituting the rule permanently, citing the public engagement and
changes implemented.
But advocates for the incarcerated expressed dissatisfaction with the
decision, saying they did not see substantive changes reflected in the
final rules.
“We are deeply disappointed with the permanent rules for mail scanning
in the IDOC,” a representative for Restore Justice Illinois told
reporters. “This practice lacks any empirical data demonstrating its
effectiveness, severely compromises the privacy and timeliness essential
to the legal mail process, and erodes the dignity, humanity, and safety
of people who are incarcerated in Illinois.”
Data availability
Critics of the policy pointed to a line in IDOC’s initial rule proposal,
which asks the department to list any published studies, reports or
sources of underlying data upon which the rule is based. The reply read:
“None.”
“So the proposed changes are not fact-based, they are reactionary and
based on guesses,” read a public comment submitted to and anonymized by
the department. “IDOC is impacting my life negatively and unnecessarily,
again, without having anything factual to base it on.”
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Pinckneyville Correctional Center is pictured in southern Illinois.
(Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Campbell)
Advocates called on IDOC to wait until more data is available to prove
that illegal or dangerous substances are arriving through mail, rather
than via other sources like staff or in-person visits.
“It has never been clear that mail scanning will address the concerns
that IDOC used to justify beginning this process months ago,” Benjamin
Ruddell, director of criminal justice policy at the ACLU of Illinois
told Capitol News Illinois. “Rather, the available evidence strongly
suggests that mail scanning has not worked to reduce contraband or
promote safety in prisons in the states where it has been implemented.”
A law signed by Gov. JB Pritzker last August will require IDOC to
collect and publish annual data on contraband found in its facilities,
including the source of entry into facilities. The bill passed
unanimously in the Senate and with only one dissenting vote in the
House, from Rep. John Cabello, R-Machesney Park. That data collection
will begin in July, with the first report published by August 2027.
In its analysis of comments, though, IDOC said it was “confident in its
understanding of sources of contraband entering the facilities.”
Emergency rulemaking
While the committee permitted IDOC to adopt this specific emergency rule
as a permanent one, JCAR members issued a stern warning to the
department against resorting to emergency rulemaking processes in the
future.
“Our committee wants to make it crystal clear that the further use of
emergency rules for these type of occasions needs to be ended,” JCAR
co-Chair Rep. Ryan Spain, R-Peoria, told department officials. “What we
want to see moving forward on any rulemaking is that you use the
permanent rule making process.”
Both Restore Justice and the ACLU of Illinois expressed gratitude toward
JCAR members and staff for their emphasis on meaningful stakeholder
engagement and for their objection to IDOC’s use of emergency
rulemaking.
The ACLU vowed to continue monitoring the department’s implementation of
the rule.
Committee co-Chair Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, also advised the
department that more work would likely be needed to keep the rule in
effect.
“I don’t know that this is the final word on this matter,” Cunningham
said. “As you know, there are a number of people in the state who just
philosophically are opposed to this, and I have a feeling you will be
spending time in front of the larger General Assembly over the next
couple of months dealing with proposed legislation on this matter that
might take this policy in a different position.”
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