Since the introduction of tablets and the subsequent influx of electronic mail, videograms and Snap n Send photographs, distribution of all mail has been bogged down by the flood of items that must be censored because they don’t meet department policy. For your convenience, you will find below a list of reasons for censorship. Please help us to ensure timely distribution of all mail by sending appropriate materials only. When uncertain about whether an item is appropriate, please err on the side of caution. If you have sent mail, email, Snap n Send pictures or videograms that have not been received by the offender, the item is likely being reviewed for censorship.

Incoming personal correspondence, publications, printed or recorded materials or pictures are subject to being censored in compliance with the censorship procedure if the item:

• Promotes, incites or advocates violence, disorder or the violation of state or federal law, or   advocates, facilitates or otherwise presents a risk of lawlessness, violence, anarchy or rebellion against a governmental authority;
• Provides technical information on the design, construction, or use of an instrument or device which could endanger institutional security or safety; such as:
  • Methods for constructing or using weapons, ammunition, bombs, or incendiary devices;
  • Schematics or information on how a gun or a weapon is built
  • Depictions of someone being threatened by a firearm;
• Provides information on how to obtain prohibited publications or provides information on how to order unauthorized items or contraband, such as mail order catalogs;
• Are so radically inflammatory as to be reasonably likely to cause violence;
• Contains information which can be used to instill violence or hatred among the offender population;
• Portrays, encourages, or describes methods of escape from a correctional facility including blueprints, drawings, or other similar detailed descriptions of correctional institutions, courthouses, and medical care facilities, and detailed roadmaps or railway maps of Missouri and any states contiguous to Missouri;
• Portrays or describes recipes or processes for brewing alcoholic beverages or manufacturing drugs or poison, or that describes how to abuse prescribed medication;
• Are or appear to be written or recorded in code or a language that staff members are unable to interpret with current available resources;
• Depicts, describes or encourages activities which may lead to the use of physical violence or group disruption;
• Encourages or instructs in the commission of criminal activity;
• Contains personal information about a staff member or any member of the staff member’s family, unless it is approval of the CAO;
• Contains unauthorized free items or items that pose a threat to safety and security of the institution, unless they are within publications;
• Contains recorded materials that have an affixed parental advisory label including explicit content;
• Consists of threats of physical harm to any person or threats of criminal activity;
• Contains or concerns sending contraband within, into or out of the institution;
• Advocates or promotes role-playing or similar fantasy games;
• Depicts or describes information detrimental to the offender’s rehabilitation;
• Contains detailed instructions of wrestling maneuvers, boxing maneuvers, self-defense maneuvers, or the martial arts, such as judo, karate, aikido, kendo, kung fu, or similar types of techniques;
• Contains depictions or drawings of tattoos that can be reproduced;
• Contains inappropriate sexual behavior, sexually explicit materials and pictures as defined in the definitions of this procedure for nude pictures and explicit materials and pictures: 
• Nude pictures are defined as any picture showing the human male or female genitals, totally nude buttocks, pubic area or any part of the female nipple including any picture that appears to be of a child (male or female) the is bare-chested, any picture displaying a G-string or thong style apparel, any pictorial depiction with less that a fully opaque covering (opaque refers to something impervious to the passage of light or not transparent).
• Sexually explicit materials include explicit sex acts, sadistic sex acts or sex acts in violation of state or federal law (this includes, but is not limited to, intercourse, sodomy, fellatio, cunnilingus or masturbation); sex acts where one participant appears to be non-consenting; sex acts where one participant appears to be forceful, threatening or violent; sex acts where one participant is dominating another; sex acts where one participant is degraded or humiliated; sex acts or behaviors where one participant appears to be a child; sex acts where penetration is visible; any bodily excretory function (defecation, ejaculation or urination); and bondage, sadomasochistic behavior (sexual gratification by inflicting or submitting to physical or emotional abuse or bestiality (sexual relations between a human and an animal).
• Encourages or instructs on gambling activities or contains gambling paraphernalia, or
• Contains information on how to defeat or disable computer or network security.