MailGuard (Department of Corrections)
| Multi Request | MailGuard |
| Submitted | Feb. 26, 2021 |
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Communications
From: Tom Nash
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:
Smart Communications is a technology firm that provides a service called MailGuard that “finally eliminates one of corrections longest running problems and security loopholes — contraband and secret communications in inmate postal mail” according to its website (https://www.smartcommunications.us/mailguard.cfm).
Therefore, I hereby request the following records:
1) All instructional materials, presentations and presentation materials (including recorded video and audio, PowerPoint files, prepared remarks, and slides formats), and other guidance on the use of Smart Communications’s MailGuard platform. This includes A) any notes taken during meetings that discussed the use of MailGuard, B) any explanations (whether internally or externally generated) of how MailGuard works, and C) any other document that has been used to help explain the use of the MailGuard system, including internal documentation, public relations materials, and executive summaries.
2) A copy of any privacy impact assessments, use policies, technical explainers or assessments, standard operating procedures, data retention policies, legal opinions or assessments, warranties, non-disclosure agreements, contracts, liability waivers, insurance agreements, Requests for Proposals, Responses to Requests for Proposal, Memorandums of Understanding, Letters of Interest, usage policies, or informal agreements between the Department of Corrections and Smart Communications regarding the MailGuard platform.
3) A copy of any funding opportunity announcements, grant applications and grantor status/progress reports, reports to legislative bodies, annual reports that mention MailGuard, as well as audit records, including but not limited to security audits of the software, misuse reports, and reports to oversight bodies.
4) Any digital communications (including but not limited to emails and text messages) as well as documents (including but not limited to PDF, word processing, excel, and slide documents) that mention MailGuard.
5) Any digital communications (including but not limited to emails and text messages) with Smart Communications representatives (email addresses ending in the domain “@smartcommunications.us”.)
Please try to include any other miscellaneous documents that facilitate this police department's relationship with Berla that don't neatly fall neatly into the above categories.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 5 business days, as the statute requires.
Please note that I am a citizen of Virginia, and am using MuckRock's services to help manage and track my request.
Sincerely,
Tom Nash
From: Department of Corrections
Good Morning,
Thank you for your request for records made in accordance with the Virginia
Freedom of Information Act (§ 2.2-3700 et seq.). You have made a request
for records relating to the Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) and
Smart Communications Holding, Inc. Specifically, you have requested:
1. All instructional materials, presentations and presentation materials
(including recorded video and audio, PowerPoint files, prepared remarks,
and slides formats), and other guidance on the use of Smart Communications’
MailGuard platform. This includes A) any notes taken during meetings that
discussed the use of MailGuard, B) any explanations (whether internally or
externally generated) of how MailGuard works, and C) any other document
that has been used to help explain the use of the MailGuard system,
including internal documentation, public relations materials, and executive
summaries.
2. A copy of any privacy impact assessments, use policies, technical
explainers or assessments, standard operating procedures, data retention
policies, legal opinions or assessments, warranties, non-disclosure
agreements, contracts, liability waivers, insurance agreements, Requests
for Proposals, Responses to Requests for Proposal, Memorandums of
Understanding, Letters of Interest, usage policies, or informal agreements
between the Department of Corrections and Smart Communications regarding
the MailGuard platform.
3. A copy of any funding opportunity announcements, grant applications
and grantor status/progress reports, reports to legislative bodies, annual
reports that mention MailGuard, as well as audit records, including but not
limited to security audits of the software, misuse reports, and reports to
oversight bodies.
4. Any digital communications (including but not limited to emails and
text messages) as well as documents (including but not limited to PDF, word
processing, excel, and slide documents) that mention MailGuard.
5. Any digital communications (including but not limited to emails and
text messages) with Smart Communications representatives (email addresses
ending in the domain “@smartcommunications.us”.)
For your first and second requests please see the attached responsive
records. Please be advised that the VADOC made contact was made to
understand Smart Communications' MailGuard service (scale, features and
equipment requirements). Subsequently, there has been no additional
development and no further consideration has taken place. Please see the
attached responsive records.
For your third request, please be advised that the VADOC does not have any
records responsive to your requests because the records do not exist.
Pursuant to § 2.2-3704(D) of the Code of Virginia, “no public body shall be
required to create a new record if the record does not already exist.”
For your fourth and fifth requests, please be advised that as your request
is currently written, the Virginia Department of Corrections requires some
clarification to process your requests. Please allow me to explain the
process for obtaining email correspondence records. The VADOC IT Unit
requires the following search parameters: specific VADOC employee email
accounts/employee positions; specific time frame; and specific search
terms. The VADOC IT Unit then estimates the time/cost for performing the
search. As your fourth and fifth requests are currently written, you have
not named any VADOC employees or positions and therefore your requests
would require the VADOC IT Unit to search the email accounts of 12,000+
VADOC employees. Additionally, you have not placed any time frame to the
search. Consequently, the VADOC is unable to prepare an estimate to locate,
review, possibly redact, and produce the requested email correspondence.
Please provide specific VADOC employees/position titles as well as a
specific time frame. Also, please clarify/confirm that the search terms
that you are requesting are "MailGuard" and "@smartcommunications.us."
Please provide this information to move forward with your fourth and fifth
requests.
Thank you for contacting the Virginia Department of Corrections.
--
*Administrative Compliance Unit*
*Virginia Department of Corrections*
*foia@vadoc.virginia.gov <foia@vadoc.virginia.gov>*
*CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:* The contents of this email message and any
attachments are intended solely for the addressee(s) and may contain
confidential and/or privileged information and may be legally protected
from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient of this message or
their agent, or if this message has been addressed to you in error, please
immediately alert the sender by reply email and then delete this message
and any attachments. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby
notified that any use, dissemination, copying, or storage of this message
or its attachments is strictly prohibited.
From: Aaron Gordon
Good afternoon,
Thank you for these documents and for the information regarding searches for communications. Due to my limited understanding of VA DOC's staff, the only employees I know of are the ones mentioned in these documents. Therefore, I would like to amend my search for emails that are to/from any of the following addresses that mention Mailguard from 1/1/2017 to the time of the search:
peter.batley@vadoc.virginia.gov
kimberlee.hall@vadoc.virginia.gov
lisa.martinez@vadoc.virginia.gov
George.sisson@vadoc.virginia.gov
toni.mcdougald@vadoc.virginia.gov
melissa.welch@vadoc.virginia.gov
abel.diaz@vadoc.virginia.gov
james.bruce@vadoc.virginia.gov
john.mcqueen@vadoc.virginia.gov
Please remove duplicate emails from the results prior to processing in order to reduce costs.
Let me know if you have any additional questions or require further clarification to aid in processing this request.
Thank you,
Aaron
From: Department of Corrections
Good Afternoon,
Thank you for your request for records made in accordance with the Virginia
Freedom of Information Act (§ 2.2-3700 et seq.) received on March 2, 2021.
We are currently reviewing and processing the requested email records.
Please be advised that it is practically impossible to provide the
requested records or determine whether they are available within the five
working days required by FOIA because of the scope of your request.
Therefore, we are invoking § 2.2-3704(B)(4) of the Code of Virginia to
provide us seven additional working days to respond to your request.
Thank you for contacting the Virginia Department of Corrections.
--
*Administrative Compliance Unit*
*Virginia Department of Corrections*
*foia@vadoc.virginia.gov <foia@vadoc.virginia.gov>*
*CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:* The contents of this email message and any
attachments are intended solely for the addressee(s) and may contain
confidential and/or privileged information and may be legally protected
from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient of this message or
their agent, or if this message has been addressed to you in error, please
immediately alert the sender by reply email and then delete this message
and any attachments. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby
notified that any use, dissemination, copying, or storage of this message
or its attachments is strictly prohibited.
From: Department of Corrections
Good Morning,
Please see the attached letter in response to your FOIA request received on
March 1, 2021. Due to the size of the requested records and Gmail's 25MB
limit, a VITA Large File Transfer was sent to this email account. Please
let me know if your have any difficulty accessing the files. Thank you for
your cooperation and patience with this process.
Thank you for contacting the Virginia Department of Corrections.
--
*Administrative Compliance Unit*
*Virginia Department of Corrections*
*foia@vadoc.virginia.gov <foia@vadoc.virginia.gov>*
*CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:* The contents of this email message and any
attachments are intended solely for the addressee(s) and may contain
confidential and/or privileged information and may be legally protected
from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient of this message or
their agent, or if this message has been addressed to you in error, please
immediately alert the sender by reply email and then delete this message
and any attachments. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby
notified that any use, dissemination, copying, or storage of this message
or its attachments is strictly prohibited.
From: Department of Corrections
VITA's Enterprise
solution for sending large files
You received a Large File Package
from Adam Dourafei
Click on the tracking number to download your files
Sender's
Name:
Adam Dourafei
Link to download:
"https://lft.virginia.gov/workflow/GET/2O26U0WYCAD2UR12"
Unable to open the link?
Click on this link
"https://lft.virginia.gov/workflow/jsp/downloadFiles.jsp"
and paste the following tracking number: 2O26U0WYCAD2UR12 and then enter the PIN (if required).
Message
from Sender:
Please see the attached records in response to your FOIA request received on March 1, 2021. Thank you for contacting the Virginia Department of Corrections.
Files
Sent with Package:
Tom Nash FOIA Request Emails.zip
Tom Nash FOIA Request Attachments.zip
Total
File Size:
34555 KB
Thank you for using VITA's Large File Transfer Application.
From: Department of Corrections
Enterprise solution for sending large files
The authentication code for these file(s) is 84512O26U0WYCAD2UR121615908521444
Please copy and paste this code into validation form OR 'https://lft.virginia.gov/workflow/VERIFY/84512O26U0WYCAD2UR121615908521444' to automatically authenticate this download.
This validation code and link will only be valid for 15 minutes.
To generate a new validation code please visit: 'https://lft.virginia.gov/workflow/GET/2O26U0WYCAD2UR12'.
Package Tracking#
2O26U0WYCAD2UR12
Thank you for using FileCatalyst®.
From: Department of Corrections
Enterprise solution for sending large files
The authentication code for these file(s) is DA3E2O26U0WYCAD2UR121615908529151
Please copy and paste this code into validation form OR 'https://lft.virginia.gov/workflow/VERIFY/DA3E2O26U0WYCAD2UR121615908529151' to automatically authenticate this download.
This validation code and link will only be valid for 15 minutes.
To generate a new validation code please visit: 'https://lft.virginia.gov/workflow/GET/2O26U0WYCAD2UR12'.
Package Tracking#
2O26U0WYCAD2UR12
Thank you for using FileCatalyst®.
From: Department of Corrections
Enterprise solution for sending large files
The authentication code for these file(s) is 52072O26U0WYCAD2UR121616614291366
Please copy and paste this code into validation form OR 'https://lft.virginia.gov/workflow/VERIFY/52072O26U0WYCAD2UR121616614291366' to automatically authenticate this download.
This validation code and link will only be valid for 15 minutes.
To generate a new validation code please visit: 'https://lft.virginia.gov/workflow/GET/2O26U0WYCAD2UR12'.
Package Tracking#
2O26U0WYCAD2UR12
Thank you for using FileCatalyst®.
From: Department of Corrections
Enterprise solution for sending large files
The authentication code for these file(s) is D9852O26U0WYCAD2UR121616614297934
Please copy and paste this code into validation form OR 'https://lft.virginia.gov/workflow/VERIFY/D9852O26U0WYCAD2UR121616614297934' to automatically authenticate this download.
This validation code and link will only be valid for 15 minutes.
To generate a new validation code please visit: 'https://lft.virginia.gov/workflow/GET/2O26U0WYCAD2UR12'.
Package Tracking#
2O26U0WYCAD2UR12
Thank you for using FileCatalyst®.
From: Department of Corrections
Enterprise solution for sending large files
The authentication code for these file(s) is ABEF2O26U0WYCAD2UR121616655794899
Please copy and paste this code into validation form OR 'https://lft.virginia.gov/workflow/VERIFY/ABEF2O26U0WYCAD2UR121616655794899' to automatically authenticate this download.
This validation code and link will only be valid for 15 minutes.
To generate a new validation code please visit: 'https://lft.virginia.gov/workflow/GET/2O26U0WYCAD2UR12'.
Package Tracking#
2O26U0WYCAD2UR12
Thank you for using FileCatalyst®.
From: Department of Corrections
Enterprise solution for sending large files
The authentication code for these file(s) is 165F2O26U0WYCAD2UR121616655826250
Please copy and paste this code into validation form OR 'https://lft.virginia.gov/workflow/VERIFY/165F2O26U0WYCAD2UR121616655826250' to automatically authenticate this download.
This validation code and link will only be valid for 15 minutes.
To generate a new validation code please visit: 'https://lft.virginia.gov/workflow/GET/2O26U0WYCAD2UR12'.
Package Tracking#
2O26U0WYCAD2UR12
Thank you for using FileCatalyst®.
From: Department of Corrections
Enterprise solution for sending large files
The authentication code for these file(s) is 6B6E2O26U0WYCAD2UR121616661390117
Please copy and paste this code into validation form OR 'https://lft.virginia.gov/workflow/VERIFY/6B6E2O26U0WYCAD2UR121616661390117' to automatically authenticate this download.
This validation code and link will only be valid for 15 minutes.
To generate a new validation code please visit: 'https://lft.virginia.gov/workflow/GET/2O26U0WYCAD2UR12'.
Package Tracking#
2O26U0WYCAD2UR12
Thank you for using FileCatalyst®.
From: Department of Corrections
Enterprise solution for sending large files
The authentication code for these file(s) is A8962O26U0WYCAD2UR121616702487048
Please copy and paste this code into validation form OR 'https://lft.virginia.gov/workflow/VERIFY/A8962O26U0WYCAD2UR121616702487048' to automatically authenticate this download.
This validation code and link will only be valid for 15 minutes.
To generate a new validation code please visit: 'https://lft.virginia.gov/workflow/GET/2O26U0WYCAD2UR12'.
Package Tracking#
2O26U0WYCAD2UR12
Thank you for using FileCatalyst®.
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