Prison Letters from Conn. Pen Pals Will Be Monitored

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By Associated Press

Published: 07/10/2003

State officials will begin monitoring correspondence between inmates and Internet pen pal sites.
The decision, announced Wednesday, comes days after media reports that convicted killer Saul Dos Reis Jr. had set up a Web page looking for female pen pals.
Dos Reis, who is serving a 30-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting and killing a 13-year-old girl he met on the Internet, encouraged women to write him letters in jail.
''I am very good at telling stories which can and will have you shiver,'' the 25-year-old wrote on the Web site Inmate.com.
Dos Reis strangled Danbury sixth-grader Christina Long last year as they were having sex in his car at the Danbury Fair Mall. He led investigators to the girl's body, which was lying face down in a ravine.
Inmate.com sells advertisements to incarcerated criminals. Pen pals can either write the inmates directly or e-mail the Web site. Inmates do not have Internet access. They get printed versions of the e-mail sent to the site.
''Quite frankly, the irony of the situation is mind boggling and appalling,'' Lt. Gov. M. Jodi Rell wrote in a letter to Theresa Lantz, commissioner of the Department of Correction.
State correctional officials already had the authority to read incoming and outgoing mail. Though Dos Reis is in federal custody in Rhode Island, his case drew state attention to the use of Internet pen pals.
Department of Correction spokesman Brian Garnett said incoming mail that is obviously from an Internet site or Web-based pen pal organization will get greater scrutiny. Officials look for letters that threaten the safety or security of the prison or jeopardize and inmate's rehabilitation, he said.
Dos Reis' advertisement has since been removed from the site. His ad said he was convicted of second-degree assault, but did not mention the manslaughter or sexual assault convictions.
''Anyone trying to deceive the public will be removed from our Web site,'' an administrator at Inmate.com wrote The Greenwich Time.
Dos Reis is awaiting sentencing on federal charges that he traveled across state lines to have sex with a minor. He was working in Portchester, N.Y. at the time of the killing.
Rell said she planned to write the sentencing judge and U.S. Attorney Kevin J. O'Connor, calling for sentencing conditions that prohibit Dos Reis from using the Internet directly or indirectly.
''Predatory criminals, especially those convicted of sexual offenses, should not be permitted to use the Internet to solicit companionship of any sort while in prison,'' Rell wrote.

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