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"There are additional safe guards such as application processes … and participants are able to seek support from the organisation running the program and discuss any concerns," she said. Miranda Gibson, co-founder of Inside Out, a quarterly newsletter circulated in Australian prisons for the LGBTIQ community, said an organised pen pal program provided a safer way for people to participate in letter writing.
"There hasn't really been a convincing explanation for treating pen pals differently to any other forms of mail given that these broad powers of censorship and inspection exist under the current Act," he said. Mr Connell said he could not understand the ban given the very "stringent vetting processes" in place for incoming and outgoing mail under the Corrections Act. "While prison officers can inspect letters, this process will not necessarily detect the nuances of emotional or other forms of exploitation and manipulation that may occur when the prisoner and pen pal do not know one another," he said. In a statement, Mr Money said communicating with a previously unknown prisoner could present a range of risks for community members. Prison pen pal programs operate across the world and throughout Australia, with Victoria the only state to have a ban on an organised program. "People in prison should not need to request permission to exercise their freedom of communication by writing to pen pals," he said.
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Prisoners must seek approval to write to an individual not affiliated with a program, which Mr Connell said was a breach of basic human rights. "A pen pal program would have particular value to people who are experiencing loneliness, isolation and mental health issues," said Tyrone Connell from the FCLC. In an open letter addressed to Deputy Corrections Commissioner Brendan Money, The Federation of Community Legal Centres (FCLC) said organised pen pal programs played an important role in a prisoner's life. The peak body for Victoria's Community Legal Centres is calling for the ban on organised pen pals in Victorian prisons to be overturned, citing benefits the program can play in prisoner rehabilitation.