RIGHT TO CORRESPONDENCE (OPINION)
to its recipients and transmitting external mail to personnel or to the
postal service.
6/ There is no reason to read internal mail, since it is for a member
of the establishment's staff. However, any staff member who receives
correspondence should, if necessary, report to management anything
he deems threatening to the good order of the establishment.
Regulations providing for the possibility of disciplinary action against
detainees in cases of abuse should be eliminated.
7/ Mail sent outside the establishment should always be able to
be inspected, in accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure.
In practice, however, this inspection should be quite moderate in
most circumstances for prisoners known to the establishment's
administrators.
Solely the vaguemestres should read the letters. They must be bound
by professional secrecy, with exceptions made, in accordance with the
laws in force, for cases concerning the rehabilitation of the prisoner or
the safety of people or property.
The vaguemestres should keep anonymous statistics concerning
letters that are inspected and those that are retained.
8/ No other administrative employee should be aware of the content
of detainees' correspondence, except its recipient, barring the case
where the content must be brought to the attention of a third party in
accordance with point 7 above.
In the particular case of the mail for UCSA staff, additional protection
is necessary because of medical information that may be included.
Only the UCSA or SMPR medical staff (excluding security personnel
assigned to those services) should have access to prisoners'
correspondence.
9/ Regarding mail addressed to prisoners, when the size of an
establishment makes it impossible for mail to be distributed solely
by the vaguemestres, the respect for correspondence should be
guaranteed. In particular, letters opened by vaguemestres must
be closed again using a method that will show that the letter
was inspected, and will also prevent inopportune reopening. All
inadvertently opened correspondence must be clearly flagged and
be delivered to the addressee by the vaguemestre.
27
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