can prison officers open all mail coming and going and read it?

Yes, they can. Prisoners have no privacy rights except for communications with their attorneys.

All prison mail incoming or outgoing is read by a prison official. Did you really think otherwise?

PS by the way I have not been in prison I want to clarify that.

They can. It would be virtually impossible to do so.m They select a set number, say 10, and read every 10Th letter.

There is not enough manpower to read all mail. The population of officers to inmates does not permit much time to reading the large volume of mail handled each day.

Yes

I've heard it was legal for them to even record phone conversations in jails or prisons LOL without telling them

Absolutely.

i think they read the incoming mail to make sure nothing is being sent to an inmate that could cause problems. but you may want to check that out from someone else. just to make sure.

Yep.

You might find this hard to believe but criminals might try to sneak something into the jail via the mail.

I know, I know, it's hard to believe a criminal might attempt to do something illegal but some of them do!

They read and will block out some passages. So yes the can, and do.

They are required to open every envelope..Or anything else that has a fold or double page...It's to control contraband & drugs.