Federal Criminal Cases: Some Prisoners Have Email Access

A recent story in USA Today explains a recent trend for people convicted in a federal criminal case. More and more federal prisons are implementing an email system to allow prisoners to use this method for communicating with friends, family, and even their attorneys.

On the surface, one might wonder if emails could be abused by people convicted of white collar crimes, fraud, money laundering and the like. After all, people in these type cases are accomplished at using business tools to commit crimes. However, as the USA Today story explains, the same could be said for inmates using the phone or old fashioned “snail mail.” The emails are screened for certain words. Furthermore, recipients must agree to receive messages from an inmate, and can reject any message they do not want to accept.

I have written previously about some bad aspects of our federal criminal justice system. The move to emails is a positive side, a method to allow incarcerated persons to remain in closer contact with the outside world.