N.J. Admin. Code § 10A:31-19.4

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 9, May 6, 2024

Section 10A:31-19.4 - Disapproved content

(a) Any correspondence or publication for an inmate may be withheld in the mailroom or taken from an inmate's possession by the adult county correctional facility Administrator, designee or custody staff, if it falls within one of the following categories:

1. The correspondence or publication contains material that is detrimental to the security and/or order of the adult county correctional facility because it incites violence based upon race, religion, creed or nationality and a reasonable inference can be drawn, based upon the experience and professional expertise of correctional administrators, that it may result in the outbreak of violence within the facility.

2. The correspondence or publication contains information on the following subjects that, based upon the experience and professional expertise of correctional administrators and custody staff and judged in the context of a correctional facility and its paramount interest in security order and rehabilitation is detrimental to the secure and orderly operation of the correctional facility:

i. Explosives;

ii. Weapons;

iii. Controlled dangerous substances;

iv. Escape plans;

v. Lock picking or locking devices;

vi. Depictions or descriptions of procedures for the brewing of alcoholic beverages, or the manufacture of drugs; or

vii. Anything that might pose a threat to the safety, security or orderly operation of the adult county correctional facility;

3. The correspondence or publication contains information which appears to be written in code;

4. The correspondence or publication contains information concerning activities within or outside the adult county correctional facility which would be subject to criminal prosecution under the law of New Jersey or the United States;

5. The correspondence or publication incites violence or destructive or disruptive behavior toward:

i. Law enforcement officers;

ii. Department of Corrections or contract vendor personnel;

iii. Facility inmates, visitors and/or volunteers; or

iv. Facility protocols, programs or procedures; or

6. The correspondence or publication contains material, which, based upon the experience and professional expertise of correctional administrators and judged in the context of an adult county correctional facility and its paramount interest in maintaining safety, security, order and rehabilitation:

i. Taken as a whole, appeals to a prurient interest in sex;

ii. Lacks, as a whole, serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value; and

iii. Depicts, in a patently offensive way, actual or simulated sexual conduct including patently offensive representations or descriptions of ultimate sexual acts, masturbation, excretory functions, lewd exhibition of the genitals, child pornography, sadism, masochism or bestiality.

N.J. Admin. Code § 10A:31-19.4

New Rule, R.2000 d.332, effective 8/7/2000.
See: 32 N.J.R. 1894(a), 32 N.J.R. 2945(a).
Former N.J.A.C. 10A:31-19.4, Inspection and reading of incoming mail, recodified to N.J.A.C. 10A:31-19.5.
Amended by R.2008 d.141, effective 6/2/2008.
See: 39 N.J.R. 5043(a), 40 N.J.R. 3309(a).
In the introductory paragraph of (a), inserted "by the adult county correctional facility Administrator, designee, or custody staff,"; rewrote the introductory paragraph of (a)2; in (a)2v, deleted "or" at the end; added new (a)2vi; recodified former (a)2vi as (a)2vii; in (a)2vii, inserted "safety,"; in (a)5iv, inserted "protocols," and "or" at the end; in the introductory paragraph of (a)6, inserted a comma following "material" and inserted "maintaining safety,"; and in (a)6iii, inserted "child pornography,".
Amended by R.2011 d.059, effective 2/22/2011.
See: 42 N.J.R. 2692(a), 43 N.J.R. 427(a).
In the introductory paragraph of (a), deleted a comma following "designee"; and in (a)1, substituted the first occurrence of "that" for "which".