The majority of these places don’t ship directly to correctional facilities,” Laracuente said. “A lot of the families, they use Walmart, they use Target, they use Western Beef, they use Shoprite, they use Tops, they use Wegmans. But Wilfredo Laracuente, who was released from Sing Sing Correctional Facility in July, predicted that the new policy will offer little more choice than its predecessor. Instead, it doesn’t define “vendor” at all. While the 2018 program only allowed certain approved vendors, the new program doesn’t force people to choose from a limited list. “Reintroducing the secure vendor program is an unfortunate and avoidable step in the direction that so many other corrections agencies across the country have gone,” says Jennifer Scaife, executive director of the Correctional Association of New York, the state’s legally designated prison monitor. The majority of state correctional departments have entered contracts with private package companies, including New York. New York is one of the few states that still permits non-vendor packages to be sent to incarcerated people at all. So my family, I told them I’d rather have nothing than to make them pay extra money.” “And the reason being is because it’s too expensive. My whole time in prison, I’ve never received a package from a vendor,” says Michael Capers, who was incarcerated at Upstate, Franklin, and Fishkill Correctional Facilities. After immense pushback, then-Governor Andrew Cuomo directed the agency to halt the program after just 10 days. Those prison-specific vendors offered limited selections at steep markups, with prices as much as 130 percent higher than on the outside. The new restrictions are a revived version of a stalled 2018 initiative, the “Secure Vendor Package Program,” which would have required all packages to be sent from six approved private companies. Hochul did not respond to a request for comment. Governor Kathy Hochul appointed him as commissioner, but he has yet to be confirmed as lawmakers from both parties raised concerns over high death rates and other issues in prisons under his watch. The new package policy is based on a recommendation from the agency’s Prison Violence Task Force, composed of prison staff, administrators, and representatives of the correction officers union.Īnnucci, who leads the prison agency, has been acting commissioner since 2013.

One year later, an investigation revealed no impact on the amount of drugs circulating in state prisons.Ī prison agency spokesperson declined to provide data on how often the security staff that screen packages in New York have identified contraband, or how that rate has changed over time. In 2020, Texas corrections officials limited mail to curb the contraband problem. There is ample evidence nationwide of corrections officers bringing drugs, weapons, and other contraband into prisons and jails in the last two years, multiple New York City corrections officers faced charges for allegedly smuggling contraband into jails in exchange for cash. Whether or not mailrooms are a major entrypoint for contraband is the subject of much debate. “Am I going to be prevented from getting winter clothes if I get a book from my mom in the summer?” asked Jeremy Zielinski, currently incarcerated at Attica, in a phone call with New York Focus and Bolts.Īn April 25 memo to the incarcerated population from acting Department of Corrections and Community Supervision Commissioner Anthony Annucci, obtained by Bolts and New York Focus, says the new policy is a response to “an increase in violence and overdoses due to the introduction of contraband through the package room, specifically, illicit drugs and weapons.”

Incarcerated people say the new restrictions will cut off a lifeline. Everything else must be purchased and sent through private companies willing to ship to prisons. Under the policy, family and friends are no longer allowed to bring their loved ones packages of food when they come to visit or to send them through the mail, and can’t send more than two non-food packages each year. The state prison agency is piloting the new restrictions at eight prisons, with plans to expand them to the rest. On Monday, more than 6,000 people incarcerated in New York prisons lost their right to regularly receive care packages by mail or in person from family and friends. This article was produced as a collaboration between Bolts and New York Focus.

Icare packages for inmates