Santa Barbara County Jail inmates can now receive mail other than just postcards after county authorities revised the mail delivery policy — one deemed unconstitutional in Ventura County.

The Sheriff’s Department originally revised its codes to include a postcards-only policy in March 2013, meaning no letters or other packages could reach those behind bars.

At the time, the logic was to restrict incoming, nonprivileged mail to postcards only to cut down on contraband being smuggled into the jail, sheriff’s spokeswoman Kelly Hoover said last week.

Inmates and outsiders alike abhorred the so-called security measure change, and a group called Right to Write SB actively fought it.

Hoover said the policy was revised again effective Sept. 15, removing the ban on nonpostcard material after a recent policy review.

“The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office regularly reviews the Custody Operations policies and the inmate management procedures to remain consistent with the most recent laws and court rulings,” she said. “The only change was the postcard-only portion of the policy was removed. The inmates at the jail have been notified of the change.”

The department’s decision did not directly correlate with a recent Ventura court case, according to Hoover.

In May, a U.S. District Court judge ruled that a similar Ventura County Sheriff’s Department policy that allows jail inmates to receive only postcards was unconstitutional.

However, Hoover did say the original policy was changed in 2013 after a department review of court rulings from several different jurisdictions, including Ventura County.

The action is considered a victory for Right to Write SB, whose volunteer members worked more than a year to switch the anti-privacy policy back.

“We’re all really, really excited,” said Anni Telfer, a group organizer who regularly writes notes to incarcerated friends. “Everybody here is, or has been at some time, affected by jail policies. All were upset about having to switch to postcards. I definitely noticed, for myself, that the content of the letters I was writing changed because of that.”

Telfer expressed gratitude for the Ventura activities and lawyers, some of whom contacted Right to Write SB. She said the group was considering filing legal action if the policy wasn’t reversed.

“The Sheriff’s Department hasn’t really given a reason for why it changed either,” Tilfer said. “I’m so, so happy that it was able to change without a lawsuit.”

— Noozhawk staff writer Gina Potthoff can be reached at gpotthoff@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.