CHICAGO — A state legislative oversight committee Friday permitted the Illinois Department of Corrections to formally adopt permanent rules that allow it to scan and digitize mail of those in custody, in a blow to prison reform advocates.

The rule was originally introduced under pressure from Republican legislators and the IDOC workers’ union after a series of substance exposures in the fall of 2024 left correctional staff hospitalized. The policy has been in effect on an emergency basis since August.

The department sought to make the rule permanent, describing it as a necessary safety precaution to keep drugs and dangerous substances from being smuggled into prisons via the mail, while critics said little evidence supports the rule, and that it violates the civil rights of incarcerated people.

Reading letters from loved ones on a tablet, they said, was not the same as being able to hold the real thing. Prison monitoring groups and legal advocates also raised data privacy concerns about the use of third-party vendors and protections for legal mail sent by attorneys.

The Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, which oversees administrative rulemaking, issued an objection to the rule in September, telling the department it needed to implement feedback from incarcerated people, families, attorneys and other stakeholders if it wanted to adopt the rule permanently.

Read more: Under emergency rule, Illinois prisons can begin withholding physical mail | Oversight panel objects to new Illinois prison mail policy | Inmate families, advocates speak against mail scanning program

After a period of public comment and engagement with stakeholders, the department introduced amended rules, including some exceptions for photographs and used books, as well as clarifications for legal mail. Photographs must be unopened and sent directly from a vendor. Those in custody can also receive a physical printout of their mail upon request, at no cost to the individual, under the amended rules.

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JCAR decided Friday that the department had done enough to warrant instituting the rule permanently, citing the public engagement and changes implemented.

But advocates for the incarcerated expressed dissatisfaction with the decision, saying they did not see substantive changes reflected in the final rules.

“We are deeply disappointed with the permanent rules for mail scanning in the IDOC,” a representative for Restore Justice Illinois told reporters. “This practice lacks any empirical data demonstrating its effectiveness, severely compromises the privacy and timeliness essential to the legal mail process, and erodes the dignity, humanity, and safety of people who are incarcerated in Illinois.”

Data availability

Critics of the policy pointed to a line in IDOC’s initial rule proposal, which asks the department to list any published studies, reports or sources of underlying data upon which the rule is based. The reply read: “None.”

“So the proposed changes are not fact-based, they are reactionary and based on guesses,” read a public comment submitted to and anonymized by the department. “IDOC is impacting my life negatively and unnecessarily, again, without having anything factual to base it on.”

Advocates called on IDOC to wait until more data is available to prove that illegal or dangerous substances are arriving through mail, rather than via other sources like staff or in-person visits.

“It has never been clear that mail scanning will address the concerns that IDOC used to justify beginning this process months ago,” Benjamin Ruddell, director of criminal justice policy at the ACLU of Illinois told Capitol News Illinois. “Rather, the available evidence strongly suggests that mail scanning has not worked to reduce contraband or promote safety in prisons in the states where it has been implemented.”

A law signed by Gov. JB Pritzker last August will require IDOC to collect and publish annual data on contraband found in its facilities, including the source of entry into facilities. The bill passed unanimously in the Senate and with only one dissenting vote in the House, from Rep. John Cabello, R-Machesney Park. That data collection will begin in July, with the first report published by August 2027.

In its analysis of comments, though, IDOC said it was “confident in its understanding of sources of contraband entering the facilities.”

Emergency rulemaking

While the committee permitted IDOC to adopt this specific emergency rule as a permanent one, JCAR members issued a stern warning to the department against resorting to emergency rulemaking processes in the future.

“Our committee wants to make it crystal clear that the further use of emergency rules for these type of occasions needs to be ended,” JCAR co-Chair Rep. Ryan Spain, R-Peoria, told department officials. “What we want to see moving forward on any rulemaking is that you use the permanent rule making process.”

Both Restore Justice and the ACLU of Illinois expressed gratitude toward JCAR members and staff for their emphasis on meaningful stakeholder engagement and for their objection to IDOC’s use of emergency rulemaking.

The ACLU vowed to continue monitoring the department’s implementation of the rule.

Committee co-Chair Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, also advised the department that more work would likely be needed to keep the rule in effect.

“I don’t know that this is the final word on this matter,” Cunningham said. “As you know, there are a number of people in the state who just philosophically are opposed to this, and I have a feeling you will be spending time in front of the larger General Assembly over the next couple of months dealing with proposed legislation on this matter that might take this policy in a different position.”

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.