Pennsylvanians know our state is influential. Some of us know we’re the center of the universe. People around the nation and the world care about what we say and do.

When we declare we’ve solved a problem, even without proof, some will seek to imitate our alleged success. That’s why the Prison Policy Initiative says our declaring a solution to the problem of drugs in prisons is so disturbing. It’s not true.

The Prison Policy Initiative, a respected non-partisan, non-profit national organization, is calling out the state Department of Corrections for touting a program to address the problem of drugs in state prisons by stopping direct mail deliveries to prisoners.

DOC officials said drugs were reaching inmates through the letters they receive, some of it - they claim - miraculously infused into the very paper families sent to their loved ones in prison. So, in 2018, Pennsylvania moved to stop letting prisoners receive the actual mail their families sent. Instead, they began sending it to Florida to be scanned.

Now, instead of getting a hand-written letter sent directly from his mother, a young man gets a photocopy of what she sent.

Instead of getting a perfumed card from his wife a few days after she mailed it, a man facing years behind bars gets a blurry picture weeks later. Many poor families have to depend on snail mail because they simply can’t afford what prisons charge for emails and texts.

According to the Prison Policy Initiative’s research, all of this has cost Pennsylvania taxpayers more than $4 million a year. The company raking in the dough is not even in Pennsylvania. We’re sending our prisoners’ mail to Smart Communications in Seminole, Fla.

The Prison Policy Initiative points out one important fact: drugs still are getting into state prisons. So even though $4 million of tax dollars is heading to Smart Communications to scan letters from distraught wives, mothers, and children, it hasn’t solved the drug problem.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people in Pennsylvania prisons are unable to have the simple respite of a letter sent from home, grease stains and all.

The Prison Policy Institute says it’s no small matter to people who desperately need to maintain connections to their families to keep them both healthy and sane.

Some of our readers might say, who cares. If they’re in prison, they deserve to pay for their crimes. Point well taken. Except, most of the people behind bars will get out one day. Most of the people in prisons today will be back in our communities after a few years of pain, stress, and trauma. What kind of person will they be when they get?

What kind of person do we want returning to our workplaces, schools, and neighborhoods?

The Prison Policy Initiative says studies show the more connections prisoners maintain with their friends and family in prison, the better their chances of not returning when they’re out.

Pennsylvania DOC officials have promoted letter scans to the nation as the solution to drugs in prison, the organization says, without the solid data to back it up. And since Pennsylvanians are so respected around the nation, many states followed our lead, although we’re told at less cost than the $4 million we pay to the Florida company.

The Prison Policy Initiative has raised serious questions about our policy of scanning prisoners’ mail. It has raised valid warnings about the serious repercussions to the health and mental stability of people in state care. And they have well noted the influence we have had on policies impacting prisons across the nation.

The Prison Policy Initiative says its years of investigations have not found any proof that scanning letters reduced the amount of drugs entering prisons. In some cases, they argue, just the opposite happened.

We call on state officials to rethink the policy of paying $4 million a year to a Florida company to scan letters that families send to their loved ones in Pennsylvania prisons. At the very least, we call on the Department of Corrections to provide some proof that scanning the personal letters of prisoners is solving the drug problem within prison walls.

Without such proof, the Prison Policy Institute is right to warn Pennsylvanians their tax dollars are being wasted. And Pennsylvania officials are abusing their influence by spreading misery at home and misinformation throughout the nation.

PennLive