Limits on inmates’ mail prompt prison ministry to sue state

ROCKLAND – Only a Hallmark will do?

Volunteers associated with a prison ministry inspired by a Quaker minister as well as three inmates at the Maine State Prison have taken the state to court over a Corrections Department decision to tighten restrictions on inmate mail.

The volunteers say the state has begun preventing inmates from receiving letters or greeting cards from prison volunteers if they contain personal messages – except for references to a specific accomplishment.

“I don’t even care about a Christmas card unless there’s something personal in it,” said the Rev. John Daniel McNutt, pastor of Boothbay Baptist Church and a member of the Maine chapter of Yokefellows International Prison Ministry.

“Just a generic Christmas card or Easter card doesn’t mean a whole lot,” McNutt said. “I like the personal interaction.”

McNutt and others, who are suing individually, say the issue revolves around how the volunteers and inmates work with each other. Family, friends and even visitors can correspond with inmates. But official volunteers apparently come under different restrictions.

Yokefellows is an international group that evolved into a prison ministries organization in 1955. It was inspired by the teaching of Quaker preacher D. Elton Trueblood. Yokefellows are committed to the idea that people’s lives are changed through personal discipline and committed small groups where problems and faith are shared.

“Yokefellows is just friendship,” said McNutt on Monday. He has been involved with the group for five years.

Volunteer Edward A. Myers of Walpole, who has been in the program for nearly 25 years, said that the volunteers talk with inmates to find out what is bothering them and to try to defuse their anger.

The lawsuit was prompted by a couple of prison directives informing volunteers that they could not correspond with inmates. The first notice, in April, said that “effective immediately: Religious volunteers are no longer allowed to write letters [or] have any correspondence with inmates. This includes birthday cards, Christmas [cards] or any other mail,” the claim states.

Following a May 4 claim against the corrections commissioner, the volunteers were informed that the rule was in fact not new, but rather a clarification of an existing rule concerning volunteers, according to the lawsuit.

Then on Sept. 6, a directive was issued under the commissioner’s authority that says: “Correspondence between volunteers and prisoners is generally prohibited. The only exception is that volunteers may send greeting cards to prisoners. Cards may not be sent directly to prisoners, but must be sent to facility staff designated by the chief administrative officer. The designated staff will open and review all cards to ensure that they meet the following requirements,” the court document states.

Those requirements include that the cards be commercially produced and not have inserts, popouts, music, offensive pictures or messages, or cash or other mementos inside. They may not include personal messages other than remarks related to a particular accomplishment, such as an education volunteer sending a card to an inmate who has received a General Equivalency Diploma.

Myers said the Yokefellows’ meetings with the inmates each week are for limited times.

“There’s always something loose hanging,” he said. “It would be nice to be able to write,” he said.

According to Myers, the reason given to the volunteers for not writing to inmates is that it presents a danger that the prisoners might manipulate them and that they might bring in contraband.

“I haven’t brought in any yet,” Myers said.

Myers noted that four of the local Yokefellows members are ordained ministers.

The lawsuit was filed in Knox County Superior Court against state Corrections Commissioner Martin Magnusson. Three inmates, Derek Soucy, Kevin Tardiff and Antonio Abreau, are also plaintiffs in the case, which seeks a speedy decision by a judge.

Assistant Attorney General Diane Sleek returned a call Monday seeking comment from Magnusson, Associate Commissioner Denise Lord and Warden Jeffrey Merrill. She said that the department’s policy is to not comment on pending litigation.

The suit alleges the state has violated the plaintiffs’ state and federal constitutional rights, including their First Amendment rights to free speech, exercise of religion, Fourth Amendment rights to freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, and Fourteenth Amendment rights to due process and equal protection.

The Yokefellows members named as plaintiffs, who are suing as individuals, are Myers, McNutt, Peter Beauchamps of Bristol, the Rev. William Luger of Georgetown, and Raymond Christie of Boothbay Harbor.

Andrews B. Campbell of Waldoboro, a member as well as the lawyer who filed the lawsuit Friday, said that they are waiting to hear from the attorney general on the state’s position and whether they can reach an agreement.

Myers, who is a former president of the Pine Tree Society for Crippled Children and Adults and a former business owner and lobster dealer, said he has attended two required orientations at the prison since he began volunteering.

“This was never mentioned,” Myers said of the rule prohibiting correspondence. “I took it twice. We never heard of it, until it suddenly came upon us.”