For at least one hour every day, a Schuylkill County corrections officer checks mail directed to county inmates. It’s painstaking work. The officer is checking for drugs or other contraband, which could be hidden just about anywhere inside and outside an envelope.

During a Prison Board meeting Wednesday, Warden Eugene Berdanier related information he’d received during a meeting with officials from TextBehind. TextBehind is an inmate mail management system that eliminates contraband from incoming inmate mail.

All mail for inmates first goes directly to TextBehind, located in Phoenix, Maryland. There, employees for TextBehind go through the mail before forwarding it to various prisons.

One area county prison which is using the service is Berks County, which signed up for the service in January.

Berdanier said he felt using TextBehind would help keep corrections officers and mailroom personnel safe.

He said he is reviewing the multiple services offered by TextBehind, and also contacting other jails which have contracted with them.

According to the TextBehind Facebook page, the company “connects families, friends and pen pals with their incarcerated loved ones nationwide. TextBehind enables you to communicate with any inmate nationwide using detailed text messages and greeting cards with multiple personal photos. You can also send money orders electronically from your smartphone or computer using credit cards, debit cards and PayPal.”