Revision of Minimum Standards

New York, NY —

The Board of Correction has revised several of its minimum standards at the city's correctional facilities that include more monitoring of inmates - prompting criticism from legal advocacy groups.

The board agreed that corrections officials can monitor inmates telephone calls and more easily inspect their mail and packages. The board also gave authorization to require that all inmates - including detainees who have not been sentenced yet - to wear the same standard uniforms.

Groups such as the Innocence Project and Legal Aid Society contend that the measures are unnecessarily restrictive and intrusive. However, they lauded the board for rejecting a proposal that they say would have lent to jail overcrowding and rejected a 23-hour lock-in policy for a certain category of inmates.