Red Tape

Back in May I started a long process to order a book for a Warcraft-themed roleplaying game. Before this new warden arrived in January, we were able to fill out a withdrawal request form and turn it in with an order at the commissary window. From there, the request would be approved by the unit administration and forwarded to the inmate trust fund in Huntsville for the money to be withdrawn as a money order and sent with the inmate's order to the company.

Now that's a long enough process itself, but the new warden, in his infinite wisdom on how a smooth-running unit should operate, added more steps to the process. Before an inmate can even turn in the request to commissary, the have to send a request to the mail room asking if the desired book has been approved and, if affirmative, turn in the mail room's answer to the commissary with everything else.

A problem I've run into a few times is that the book I want to order has not been reviewed and permission is denied because it hasn't been approved. Most of the books I receive are not on the list of approved books, but do not have objectionable material and are allowed in. Why we can't order unreviewed books when we receive then all the time is beyond me.

Back to the current order. The order went all the way to completion and my reception of a book. Unfortunately, the book I received was not the book I ordered. Instead of email or phone call to ask about an exchange, I had to write a letter and wait two weeks for a response. The company apologized for its mistake and offered to exchange at no extra cost to me. I got this letter in the middle of June. Since then I have been trying to send this book back, finally meeting success today.

I wrote a letter outlining the exchange, put it with the book in an envelope and asked the mail room to weigh it for postage. They said they wouldn't do it; the book had to be released through property for them to weigh it.

So two weeks ago I had the book, letter and envelope confiscated. Last Friday I went to the property room to confirm that I needed the package weighed. Today I found out it would take $10.30 worth of stamps to go out. I had to wipe out my stash and borrow some from friends for it to go out tomorrow.

I hope this saga comes to a happy ending soon. The red tape and hurdles have made the process a very tiring one.