In 2010, the Ventura County Sheriff's Department approved a measure that restricted the types of mail that can come into the county jails.

Namely, letters and cards were out- and postcards were in.

The reason for this, according to sources within the corrections department, was their wanting to take a proactive approach to restricting contraband.  People on the outside were starting to get a little too creative in terms of how they were smuggling drugs into the facility and the sheriff's department felt a postcard only policy would help thwart that.

But thanks to the recent lawsuit filed by Prison Legal News, that policy has been overturned; a federal judge has ruled that prohibiting inmates from receiving most types of mail is a violation of their First Amendment rights.

Moving forward, the county can no longer refuse to deliver letters and cards to detainees.  If inmates want to order books and magazines, that will be allowed.  If family members want to send things that have been photocopied or printed out from the internet, that will be OK too.

In addition to reversing the ban, the Ventura County Jails will also need to pay $350,000 to cover the Prison Legal News' legal fees.

A number of other counties have a similar ban in place, according to sources, but it's too soon to tell whether they'll be switching their policies as well.