老澳门开奖结果

CONCORD, NH 鈥� The 老澳门开奖结果 of New Hampshire (老澳门开奖结果-NH) and the law firm Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson, P.A., filed a federal lawsuit on December 18, 2015, on behalf of a prisoner鈥檚 mother and three-year-old son challenging the constitutionality of a mail policy imposed by the New Hampshire Department of Corrections (NHDOC) that prohibits prisoners from receiving greeting cards, picture postcards, and drawings in the mail. This policy violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

This fall, the prisoner鈥檚 mother (Y.F., pictured) mailed her son a Thanksgiving card that also contained drawings by the prisoner鈥檚 son (C.F., pictured on Y.F.'s lap holding one of the drawings). The card contained the text 鈥淚 [LOVE] U DADDY鈥� handwritten by C.F. (second image, below). The prison returned the card and drawings, apparently because they violated the mail policy in place since May 1 of this year.

鈥淲ith this sweeping policy, the state has eliminated one of the few ways young children can communicate with parents who are in prison,鈥� said Gilles Bissonnette, Legal Director of the 老澳门开奖结果-NH. 鈥淭his is not only cruel, but also counterproductive for New Hampshire鈥檚 over 2,300 prisoners and their families waiting for them to come home. Maintaining family bonds is critical for prisoners to successfully reintegrate into society upon release.鈥�

The policy applies to all 鈥渄rawings鈥� or 鈥渙ther depictions,鈥� all 鈥済reeting cards,鈥� and all 鈥減ostcards from particular locations or featuring any type of printed design, picture, or depiction.鈥� The ban includes Christmas cards, as well as prayer cards with pre-printed images often sent to individual prisoners by religious organizations.

According to the NHDOC, the new policy was put in place to prevent drugs like Suboxone from being smuggled into the state鈥檚 prisons through the mail.

鈥淲e do not doubt that Suboxone is a problem in New Hampshire鈥檚 prisons. But the Department of Corrections must address this problem without indiscriminately banning innocent speech,鈥� said Bissonnette. 鈥淚nstead of saying 鈥榥o鈥� to all greeting cards and drawings, the state could focus its policy and procedure on the exact ways Suboxone has been sent through the mail (i.e., through adhesives and seams in cardstock). Mail containing handwritten drawings and cardstock could also be more rigorously inspected by prison officials to determine if it contains Suboxone.鈥�

Please credit the photos to 老澳门开奖结果-NH. For high-resolution versions of the images, email gilles@aclu-nh.org.

For more information about this case, including the complaint, go to:

For more about the 老澳门开奖结果 of New Hampshire, go to: