This week we’ve been sharing a handful of our daily mail rejections — the kind of maddening, head-scratching returns that land in our PO Box almost every single day.

Here’s one for the “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up” file.

This envelope, along with several others for the same institution, came back to us marked Return to Sender — Refused, Unable to Forward, with no explanation. These RTSs were self-addressed stamped envelopes provided by the prisoners to us at their own expense, complete with their full name, correct ID number (redacted here) and mailing address.

As is our standard practice before mailing anything to someone in prison, we checked the official agency locator, in this case Oklahoma DOC, and confirmed that the recipient was still in custody and had not been moved or released. The envelope contained no contraband — just a standard application with a short handwritten note from our volunteer Liz, and sent out with all the outgoing mail prepared during our annual volunteer weekend last month.

Here’s the kicker: after some digging, I discovered Oklahoma DOC has joined the parade of states that has switched to a digital mail system. Their web page about the change even claims people in custody know about the change.

Riiigggghhhhht. So why were SASEs with the old address allowed out through the mailroom? And how are folks supposed to update their outside contacts if their own envelopes  with the wrong  address are being returned without explanation?

These unexplained refusals waste time, waste resources, and cut off people inside from essential communication while making the outside world do detective work just to learn the real reason.

Sure. Tell us again that prisons support and encourage outside contact.