Five months ago today, the Department of Corrections filed an emergency rule allowing it to intercept mail intended for inmates. According to Capitol News Illinois, that allowed prison staff to ensure “books, magazines and other publications can only come through the prison’s mailroom from the publisher,” while personal mail would be opened, scanned and provided in either digital form or a paper copy. DOC contracts for this work.

I wrote about the issue in September thanks to a reader in Bristol whose child receives Shaw Media’s Kendall County Record each week in prison. They directed my attention to MidwestBookPrisoners.org, which supplies books, magazines and other materials to incarcerated people and opposed the rule.

In September, the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules formally objected to the rule. While that decision allowed the rule to remain in place throughout January, CNI’s Peter Hancock said the vote “sent a clear message to the department that it will need to make significant changes – and listen to feedback from incarcerated people’s families, attorneys and other interested stakeholders – if it wants to make the rule permanent.”

That brings us to last Friday, when JCAR decided the changes DOC announced in the interim were significant enough to warrant a new permanent framework.

Among the adjustments, per CNI’s Maggie Dougherty, were allowing pictures if unopened and straight from a vendor (think ordering from Shutterfly or Walgreens), clarifications on legal mail and some exceptions for used books, which often are less expensive to buy but generally not as easily accessible directly from a retailer.

Inmates also can get physical printouts of their scanned mail upon request without incurring any cost. No one asked me, but that seems preferable as a default option than IDOC’s “zero-cost contract” with a vendor that supplies prisons with tablets so inmates can read digitized mail. The devices are free to the state because the company charges prisoners to access entertainment and communication services.

One thing that stuck out from the entire process was JCAR members strongly preferring IDOC had taken a more conventional approach to addressing a situation they hadn’t adequately shown to be a crisis.

“Our committee wants to make it crystal clear that the further use of emergency rules for these types of occasions needs to be ended,” said state Rep. Ryan Spain, R-Peoria, JCAR co-chairman. “What we want to see moving forward on any rulemaking is that you use the permanent rule-making process.”

The other chairman, state Sen. Bill Cunnighmam, D-Chicago, predicted his General Assembly colleagues may take up the issue on their own and dictate policy to the department. Corrections officials might’ve avoided that outcome by seeking permission instead of forgiveness. Other administrative agencies should wisely consider this a cautionary tale.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.