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Agreement reached between York County, ACLU regarding how inmates receive legal mail

YORK COUNTY, Pa. — York County and the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania (ACLU) has reached an agreement pertaining to a Department of Correc...
York County Prison

YORK COUNTY, Pa. — York County and the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania (ACLU) has reached an agreement pertaining to a Department of Corrections policy that changed the way how inmates received legal mail.

The policy allowed prison staff to open the mail and copy it, which was given to the inmate. The Department of Corrections implemented the policy following a lockdown of all state prisons in August 2018 after numerous staff members got sick because of an unknown substance.

The ACLU argued that the policy violated the First Amendment rights of the organizations’ attorneys and Department of Corrections inmates to confidential legal communications.

According to an attorney for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, prison staff “will no longer copy legal mail sent to inmates at York County Prison'” and that “legal mail will be opened in the physical presence of the inmate.”

The attorney noted that further legal action depends on how the changes are implemented.

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