Government stops messaging prisoners due to lack of control
The Department of Justice and Security is shutting down eMates, a commercial service that allows inmates to receive messages from people outside the prison and return replies. There is a risk of misuse for criminal activity.
The Custodial Institutions Service stops with eMates for the time being after the Public Prosecution Service expressed concerns about the messaging service. This is reported by the Minister for Legal Protection Weerwind. Prisons use the commercial service eMates to allow inmates to exchange messages with people outside the prison.
Friends and family of detainees can send e-mail messages to them via an account with eMates. An employee of the Custodial Institutions Service prints this out and gives it to the prisoners. In some cases, they can respond via reply sheets: The DJI scans these in and sends it to eMates by e-mail. The communication has the same status as physical mail. According to eMates, there are more than 200,000 messages per year.
The Public Prosecution Service warns that there are no contractual agreements between DJI and eMates and that there is no view of the system. For example, it is unclear how personal data is processed, who has access to data at eMates and whether there are safeguards against unauthorized access to the data.
In addition, the Public Prosecution Service is concerned about the amount of messages sent by prisoners. For some people, for example, it would be dozens of messages per day. “If the number of e-mail messages is not limited and a large amount of unscreened digital message traffic can take place with the outside world, as is now the case via eMates, this poses a significant risk of continued criminal activity within the penitentiary, according to the OM,” according to the Public Prosecution Service. the minister.
DJI has tried to set a limit for the Extra Secure Institution, but the Council for Criminal Justice and Youth has declared this limitation illegal. An independent party will investigate the use of eMates and in any case until that investigation is completed, the service will not be available to prisoners.