Call Missouri

January 2026 Call-in to South Central prison in Missouri

Demand: We are asking Colleen Harper and all mail room staff to accept free print magazines ordered by people in prison and not send them back to the publisher.

Phone number (7 am – 4 pm): 573-674-4470

What to say when you call:

  1. Ask the operator to connect you to the mail room.
  2. If the operator connects you to the mail room, ask for Colleen Harper.
  3. Say, “I am calling on behalf of Prison Health News, a free health magazine with 6,000 subscribers in prisons across the country. South Central is the only prison in the country that won’t allow Prison Health News to send the print magazine directly to subscribers. We are demanding that mail room staff accept free print magazines ordered by people in prison and not send them back to the publisher.”
  4. If they send you to voice mail, leave a message for Colleen Harper by name with the statement above.
  5. Comment on our social media post about what happened when you called.

Extra credit:

  1. If she says we have to mail them to the profiteering company to be scanned, remind her that Missouri’s mail policy says, “Postal Mail Accepted at Correctional Centers” includes “Publications ordered by an offender and sent directly from a publisher, distributor or other bona fide vendor.”
    Rules are here: https://doc.mo.gov/programs/family-friends/mail
  2. Prison Health News has a First Amendment legal right to send magazines directly to subscribers.
  3. The next issue of Prison Health News will be arriving soon, and it includes articles about health issues that subscribers may be experiencing, so we want to make sure they get their magazine.
  4. If they ask for your name, you can give your name or the alias of your choice.
  5. Share our social media post and ask friends to call.

Background:

Prisons across the country are restricting access to books and publications, often requiring people in prison to read only materials in state-approved digital library that charges money and expands surveillance. This is part of an authoritarian wave of censorship that uses tech to control what people can read, as AI is used to ban books from school libraries across the country. We’re told to send PHN to private companies that profit from this censorship by sending an inferior scanned copy to our subscribers, but we still have a First Amendment right to mail the actual print magazine free of charge to anyone who requests it. We have called prison mail rooms and mobilized legal support to end this censorship in North Carolina, Texas, New Mexico, Ohio, Delaware, New Jersey, Arkansas, Wisconsin, and other prisons in Missouri, and those now allow us to send the print magazine to subscribers. PHN volunteers have called South Central mail room for over a year asking to resolve this, but Colleen Harper has repeatedly said, “No free magazines are allowed.” So many staff at this prison smuggle drugs in that the warden was removed a year ago, but they still claim drugs are sent through the mail. Since South Central has consistently refused to allow PHN to send the print magazine to our subscribers, we are asking you to call and make a demand, applying pressure to let them know people care and are watching.

If any questions or concerns come up, text or call Suzy at 215-681-5616

Thank you so much for your solidarity! We love you!!!