DC-ADM 803, Inmate Mail and Incoming Publications Procedures Manual
Section 3 - Handling and Distribution of Mail

4. Outgoing correspondence must be sealed and delivered to the mailroom by the staff
coordinator.
E. Incoming Publications

1. General Procedures

a. Incoming publications are not to be considered outside purchases under DC­

ADM 815, "Personal Property, State Issued Items, and Commissary/Outside
Purchases," or Department policy 6.5.1, "Administration of L5 Housing Units,"
unless the publication may be obtained from the facility library in which case
the publication may only be obtained as a loan through the facility library.

b. All publications must be received from the original source or the facility library.
Covers of hardbound publications may be damaged through examination or removed
where inspection of the cover is deemed necessary and no reasonably available
alternative form of inspection is adequate. 11
c. Magazines must be mailed directly from the original source. Single copies of small
letter-sized pamphlets may be received in regular correspondence from family
members, friends, or religious advisors. 12
d. Newspapers may be mailed or delivered to the facility.13
e. Publications, new or used, that are sent directly from a publisher, bookstore, book
club, distributor, or department store, accompanied by a packing slip, shall usually be
deemed to have come from the original source.
f. Books, newsletters, and other mail from non-profit religious and charitable
organizations, when addressed to an individual inmate shall be delivered to the
inmate even if mailed at less than first or second-class mail rates (Presorted Standard
Mail rate), as long as the publication is permitted based on all other criteria set forth in
this policy.
g. Inmates are permitted to receive donated publications, with the following stipulations:
(1) must be mailed directly from the original source (e.g., publisher, bookstore, book
club, distributor, or department store);
(2) must be specifically addressed to an individual inmate; and

4-4490
4-4490
13 4-4490
11

12

Issued: 12/2/2011
Effective: 12/23/2011

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