Found this document dated 3/15/21
Indiana DOC manual for policy & procedures: Offender Correspondence. It details the procedure and reasons for possible delays in delivering legal correspondance.
BBM
pg 3
LEGAL CORRESPONDENCE: Correspondence mailed directly from or to a court, a judge, or an attorney, whether it is the attorney in a criminal or civil action involving the offender, including opposing counsel, and which
has been identified as legal mail. All correspondence marked as legal mail shall be verified by mail room staff by direct contact with the sender.
pg 7
Offenders shall be allowed unrestricted access to legal representatives and courts through the mail. Only that mail to or from an offender which is clearly identified as legal mail shall be treated as such. It is the responsibility of the sender to indicate that the correspondence is legal mail.
pg 8
If the item is legal mail or privileged correspondence, the facilities shall adhere tot he following procedure:
A. Staff shall inspect the incoming Legal Mail or Privileged Correspondence by making a visual inspection of the outside of the mail. If anything appears unusual or suspicious, staff shall confiscate the item in accordance with this policy and administrative procedure and submit the envelope to the Office of Investigations and Intelligence for further investigation
B. If the incoming mail passes visual inspection, staff shall confirm the address on the envelope. The address must be an actual physical location and staff shall make contact with the attorney’s office or government office listed on the envelope. If contact cannot be made within a reasonable amount of time(twenty-four [24] hours), Mail Room staff shall inform the offender of the delay in correspondence
C. If, after reasonable efforts, contact and address location cannot be confirmed with the attorney or attorney’s office or someone from the listed government office, the incoming mail shall be properly confiscated and documented, and submitted to the Office of Investigations and Intelligence for further investigation
D. If contact and confirmation with the attorney or attorney’s office or government office is made, and the contents verified, the incoming mail may be released to the offender
E.
Legal mail or privileged correspondence shall not be opened by the Mail Room staff. If there are concerns regarding contents of the mail, the correspondence shall be immediately properly confiscated and submitted to the Office of Investigations and Intelligence.
F. Staff shall inspect any legal mail or privileged correspondence returned to the facility from the Post Office. If a visual inspection of the mail does not indicate anything unusual or suspicious (e.g., when the returned item is noted on facility logs of outgoing mail), the mail shall be treated as incoming Legal mail or privileged correspondence and opened in the presence of the offender only to check for contraband/prohibited property.If no contraband/prohibited property is found, it shall be given to the offender.
pg 9
Several facilities will be participating in pilot programs allowing for the copying of incoming privileged and legal mail. Each participating facility shall use a Facility Directive for all protocols relating to copying legal and privileged mail. The Facility Directive shall be forwarded to the Department Policy Manager for retention and approval through Legal Services
NOTE: I can't find any information on which facilities are participating in this program.
pg 17-18
Incoming correspondence shall be delivered to offenders without unnecessarydelay. With the exception of weekends, holidays and emergencies declared by theSuperintendent in accordance with Policy 02-03-102, “Emergency Response Operations,” incoming and outgoing offender correspondence is to be held no more than 48 hours for letters and 72 hours for publications or packages. Once correspondence has been given to an offender, the correspondence becomes personal property subject to Policy and Administrative Procedure 02-01-101,"Offender Personal Property." Postage due mail shall not be accepted.
In order to ensure the prompt delivery of correspondence, the facilities shall advise offenders that
incoming correspondence should have the offender's name, as it appears on the offender's commitment and the offender's identification number, as well as the facility's name and address, as a part of the address. Offenders are to be encouraged to request that persons sending them correspondence include the housing assignment; however, correspondence shall not be delayed in its delivery simply because the housing unit is not included in the address. It shall be the offender's responsibility to ensure that all persons writing to the offender include this information in the address of all incoming correspondence.
If the offender's name, identification number, or housing unit is not included in the address on incoming correspondence, the facility shall make a reasonable attempt to deliver the correspondence in as timely a manner as possible. However, the offender shall be made aware that in such cases there will most likely be a delay in the delivery of the correspondence and, if the facility cannot adequately determine the identity of the offender, the correspondence shall be returned to the sender
